For Luba, how an object looks dictates how well it works. Usage Ĭourt historians known as bana balute ("men of memory") run their fingertips across the surface of a lukasa or point to its features while reciting genealogies, king lists, maps of protocol, migration stories, and the great Luba Epic, a preeminent oral narrative that records how the culture heroes, Mbidi Kiluwe and his son Kalala Ilunga, introduced royal political practices and etiquette. Board surfaces also have holes and lines cut into them. Each configuration lends itself to the transmission of certain kinds of information. Beads are arranged in three ways: a large bead surrounded by smaller beads, a line of beads, and one isolated bead. Beads and shells are attached to the board by small slivers of wood or hand-made iron wedges driven through their centers, and cowrie shells are frequently attached at the top and bottom. A row of carved mounds called lukala runs across their concave surface, dividing it in half. Lukasa are approximately the same size (20-25 centimeters long and about 13 centimeters wide) and have the same rectangular dish shape.
#Lukas memory master archive
A lukasa serves as an archive for the topographical and chronological mapping of political histories and other data sets. The colors and configurations of beads or ideograms serve to stimulate the recollection of important people, places, things, relationships and events as court historians narrate the origins of Luba authority. Lukasa memory boards are hourglass-shaped wooden tablets that are covered with multicolored beads, shells and bits of metal, or are incised or embossed with carved symbols. Stools, staffs, figures, and complex choreographies complement the lukasa as Luba culture is remembered, produced, and transformed. Reefe states that while it is not possible to date the origins of the lukasa, the high degree of integration of the lukasa into the structure of the Bambudye society and into the oral lore of the Luba kingdom strongly suggests that this art form is of considerable antiquity.Ĭentral to Luba artistry, lukasa aids memory and the making of histories. No candidate for political office could receive his title without first becoming a member of the Bambudye society, and the ruler of the Luba kingdom held the highest ranking Bambudye title.
The story of the lukasa is closely associated with the history of the Luba kingdom, which dominated most of northern Shaba during the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. Lukasa, "the long hand" (or claw), is a memory device that was created, manipulated and protected by the Bambudye, a once powerful secret society of the Luba. Beadwork Headdress for Mbudye Official, from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum
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