

African Art

Tusk Carved in Relief

late 19th century


22 × 2 1/2 × 3 in. (55.88 × 6.35 × 7.62 cm)
Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection
According to Kongo beliefs, the design scheme of a continuous spiral is a visual metaphor for the path that is taken through time by the dead. The term zinga, meaning “to encircle,” is used to describe movement in a spiral trajectory; it is also the name of the elongated spiral seashell used as a form of Kongo currency.
or Democratic Republic of the Congo
or Cabinda Province, Loango Coast, Angola
On view
19th century

Arcade Gallery, London, to February 26, 1989; Charles B. Benenson Collection, donated to Yale University Art Gallery in 2004




Z. S. Strother, Humor and Violence (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2016), 84–85, fig. 4.2.
