Lukasa (memory board)

Lukasa (memory board). Mbudye Society, Luba peoples (Democratic Republic of the Congo). c. 19th to 20th century C.E. Wood, beads, and metal.

• Special objects known as lukasa (memory boards) are used by experts in the oral retelling of history in Luba culture. 
• The recounting of the past is performative and includes dance and song.
• Touching and feeling the beads, shells, and pegs to recount history and solve current problems.
• The Luba Kingdom of the Democratic Republic of Congo was a very powerful and influential presence from the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries in central Africa. 
• Their art highlights the roles that objects played in granting the holders the authority of kingship and royal power.
• The Luba people are one of the Bantu peoples of Central Africa and the largest ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 
• The Luba had access to a wealth of natural resources including gold, ivory, and copper, but they also produced and traded a variety of goods such as pottery and wooden sculpture.
• For the Luba people, kingship is sacred, and the elite Mbudye Society use the lukasa to recount history in the context of spiritual rituals. 
• The board is "read" by touching its surface with the right forefinger. 
• The tactile qualities are apparent. 
• The lukasa illustrated here is one of the oldest known examples, with carved geometric designs on the back and sides, and complex clusters of beads of various sizes whose colors have faded over time. 
• The board is narrower at the center making it easy to hold.
• The most important function of the lukasa was to serve as a memory aid that describes the myths surrounding the origins of the Luba empire, including recitation of the names of the royal Luba line.