The King is a Woman: Shaping Power in Luba Royal Arts

Roberts, Mary Nooter

doi:10.1162/afar_a_00089

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…In the Luba Kingdom, the Mbudye officials were responsible for maintaining the oral histories of kings, their villages, and the land's customs. Even though these officials were men, they believed that the king was a "woman", because the first royal diviner was a woman (Roberts, 2013). Among the pre-colonial Luba society, it was recognised that spiritually, the source of political power came from women, but this was disrupted by the advent of Belgium colonialism which opposed such practices (Roberts, 2013).…”

Section: The Portrayal Of Women In the Visual Images In The Senior Se...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though these officials were men, they believed that the king was a "woman", because the first royal diviner was a woman (Roberts, 2013). Among the pre-colonial Luba society, it was recognised that spiritually, the source of political power came from women, but this was disrupted by the advent of Belgium colonialism which opposed such practices (Roberts, 2013). Considering that several Zambian ethnic groups migrated from the Luba Empire, the revised textbooks needed to highlight the role of women in the pre-colonial political systems.…”

Section: The Portrayal Of Women In the Visual Images In The Senior Se...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Silenced and Invisible Historical Figures in Zambia: An Analysis of the Visual Portrayal of Women in Senior Secondary School History Textbooks

Mboyonga

2021

Y&T n.

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Despite their significant contribution to the country's historical development, women's influence is commonly underestimated and ignored in Zambian history literature. Subsequently, their role remains undocumented in secondary school textbooks to the extent that the sex blindness of traditional historiography, which sustains male dominance in history, remains unchallenged in the books. Through a qualitative approach and purposive sampling of two Zambian secondary school Grade 12 learners' history textbooks, the study examined the portrayal of women. Located within the decoloniality paradigm, it counters the coloniality of power manifested through the insularity of dominant patriarchal historical narratives entrenched in the secondary school history curriculum, largely reflecting the remnants of colonial epistemologies and historiographical traditions. The findings in both textbooks reveal that the female characters are silenced and invisible compared to their male counterparts, reflecting the patriarchy hegemony in the secondary school Zambian history curriculum. In decolonising colonial power manifested in the curriculum, the study recommends mainstreaming gender equality in the history curricula and teaching and learning materials, mainly the learners' textbooks, to reflect women's achievements. Keywords: Decoloniality; Visual images; Gender; History textbooks; Secondary school; Women; Zambia.

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Section: The Portrayal Of Women In the Visual Images In The Senior Se...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Portrayal Of Women In the Visual Images In The Senior Se...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Silenced and Invisible Historical Figures in Zambia: An Analysis of the Visual Portrayal of Women in Senior Secondary School History Textbooks

Mboyonga

2021

Y&T n.

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“…The Baluba, who numbered about 5.6 million in the late 20 th century, were members of the Luba Empire, which flourished from the late 15 th through the late 19 th century. The wealth and relative stability of the Luba Empire supported courtly art with commissions given to skillful artists (Roberts, 2013). 8 In the absence of mechanized agriculture, population size mattered to both survival and cultural production.…”

Section: African Art and African Demographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If this is a typographical error and Janson meant the 19 th century, it is not corrected in the fourth edition of the book. 8 This figure from northeastern Luba-related peoples is characteristic of works by the so-called Buli Master, the first identified workshop and still among the most celebrated in all of Africa(Roberts, 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

Out of Time, Out of Place: Primitivism and African Art

Turshen

2017

JAH

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<p>This article debates the proposition that artistic production mirrors humanity’s maturation from primitive superstition to scientific rationality. This effort sits at the intersection of demography, political economy and aesthetics. According to traditional demographic theory, primitive peoples are caught in a poverty trap of high birth rates, a condition inimical to industrialization, well-planned urbanization, universal education, women’s emancipation and cultural production. The analysis focuses on three dynamics: the demographic effects of mass migration on creativity: the trajectories of declining populations and their places in cultural hierarchies; and slavery and colonialism’s reduction to penury of skilled artists in pre-industrial societies. The method interrogates self-reinforcing trends of the canons of demography, political economy and aesthetics and the resulting concurrence on the path of progress, which assumes that art is a reflection of liberal historical advancement. The overarching argument of the article is that by setting the criteria and suppressing alternative accounts of the history of African art, these canons narrow and misrepresent our global cultural legacy. Background: sub-Saharan African art is classified as “primitive” according to the canons of art history, demography and political economy. This label is problematic because it conveys faulty demographic assumptions about sub-Saharan Africa and reflects the ways in which theories of human progress reinforce analyses underlying the designation of primitive. The proposition advanced is that these canons narrow, suppress alternative accounts of the history of African art, and misrepresent our global cultural legacy.</p>

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“…A morte do mulopwe marca também seu retorno a um corpo humano. Através de um médium espiritual, designado mwadi, ele é eternizado em uma mulher, evidenciando que, assim como sua origem, sua perenidade só pode se constituir no corpo feminino (ROBERTS, 2013). Isso ocorre porque, para esses povos, apenas as mulheres, como fonte de vida e de poder, são fortes o suficiente para manter, conter e proteger espíritos poderosos e o conhecimento secreto associado a eles.…”

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Cristina Aguiar Rodrigues

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The King is a Woman: Shaping Power in Luba Royal Arts

Cited by 11 publications

References 4 publications

Silenced and Invisible Historical Figures in Zambia: An Analysis of the Visual Portrayal of Women in Senior Secondary School History Textbooks

Silenced and Invisible Historical Figures in Zambia: An Analysis of the Visual Portrayal of Women in Senior Secondary School History Textbooks

Out of Time, Out of Place: Primitivism and African Art

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