Featured Steatite Ntadi figure Kongo Kingdom?

One from my parents' collection. They bought it from a Dutch collector in the 1960s and I don't remember much about it, only that he is steatite and African.

Am I right in thinking this is a steatite Ntadi/Mintadi figure from the former Kongo Kingdom, now Angola and Congo? He feels old, but.... antique or replica?
And what is he holding, is he a dignitary?

Height: 14.6 cm/5.7".
Very heavy.

As always, any information is appreciated.
Thank you for looking.



Some examples of Ntadi I found:

https://www.catawiki.com/fr/c/495-art-africain-et-tribal

https://inmuseums.pl/collections/muzeum-narodowe-w-szczecinie_2/mintadi-figurines_189

I prefer mine, his face is lovely.

 

Thanks, but I think it is a bit bigger.

 

Sculptor had a problem with getting the proportions right, as the head is around the same size as the torso.

 

"The sculpture probably represents the village governor, who can be recognised by the insignia of power - a cap and a staff. "

A (shorter) staff?

 

Thanks, that could be it. I'll treat him with the respect he deserves.

 

He certainly looks similar to the other examples you found. Here is an extended quote that accompanies a stone ancestor figure from Angola in the British Museum that discusses the history of such figures (although focusing on female subjects) -

Curator's comments
Shown in Tom Phillips (ed), 'Africa, art of a Continent', 1995, p.251 (cat 4.14) with a text by Wyatt MacGaffey:
"Sculptures from the Congo depicting a mother and child are usually known in the art world as ‘ntadi’ (plural ‘mintadi’), which may not have been the indigenous term for them. After the British began to enforce their ban of slave-trading after about 1825, the trade shifted from Ngoyo on the coast to the estuary of the River Congo, where boats could hide among swamps and islands. The town of Boma became a centre of wealth. In quarries nearby sculptors began to produce stone figures as items of conspicuous display for purchase by the wealthy, including traders who come from inland with slaves. Because ‘mintadi’ were not produced for specific religious purposes, the sculptors were free to invent a great variety of forms, many of them related to items of European origin which were then becoming common in the area. Most were intended for display on graves in honour of the deceased and as witnesses to the dead. The modern expression near the coast is ‘tumba’, from the Portuguese for ‘tombstone’, but inland the usual term for a grave monument is ‘kinyongo’. Maternity was a common theme indicating that the deceased was female; other ‘mintadi’ portrayed aspects of chiefship. They were usually painted; they were not ‘minkisi’ unless, as happened sometimes, medicine packs were added to them. Several distinct sites and styles of production have been identified. ‘Mintadi’ ceased to be produced in the 1920s."
Reproduced in William Fagg & Margaret Plass, ‘African Sculpture, an anthology’, Dutton Vista (London) 1964, p.25: “Some hundreds of these ancestor memorial figures exist; some are quite recent others perhaps as much as 500 years old. Their style is identical with that of many wooden ancestor figures from the area, and undoubtedly survives from the old kingdom of Kongo, which was flourishing when the Portuguese first reached the mouth of the Congo. These two figures may be in the middle range of age.”
Published by W B Fagg, ‘The art of Central Africa’, Unesco 1967, p.13 as soapstone ancestor figures, perhaps XVIIc or XVIIIc, Bakongo, Northern Angola.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1954-13-1

As for what he is holding, it reminds me of some of the impressive marijuana joints enjoyed by Fela Kuti -



Cannabis has a long history on the African continent.

 

Very interesting, thank you. So that means he is antique and probably made for trade.
I like the trade aspect, always interesting, like all forms of early intercultural trade. And it means I don't have to feel guilty about having a burial item in my possession.

And why not. Let the little ntadi have a bit of fun.

 

Just as long as he's not "blowing smoke up your (ahem)"