Songye people

The Songye people are an ethnic group of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), living in the Kasai-Oriental province along both sides of the Lualaba River. In 1985 it was estimated that the Songye numbered between 150,000 and 217,000.^[1] The Songye are divided into sub-groupings that are under the governorship of a central chief known as the Yakitenge. More local governance is in the hands of chiefs known as Sultani Ya Muti. Their economy is based on agriculture and pastoralism.

Types of visual art

The Songye people, like Luba people, are well-known wood carvers who are renowned for making ceremonial masks, power figures, and other ceremonial items.

References

External links

• Songye Information from the University of Iowa

Further reading

• (English) Bacquart, J. 1998/2000. The Tribal Arts of Africa. Thames and Hudson.
• (English) Merriam, Alan P. 1974. An African World: The Basongye Village of Lupupa Ngye. Indiana University Press.
• (English) Phillips, T. (ed.). 1996. Africa: Art of a Continent. Prestel.
• (French) Alain-Michel Boyer, « Les Songyés » in Les Arts d'Afrique, Hazan, Paris, 2008, p. 364-365 ISBN 978-2-7541-0075-X
• (French) François Neyt, Songye : la redoutable statuaire songye d'Afrique centrale, Fonds Mercator ; 5 continents, 2004, 398 p. ISBN 9788874391318
• (French) Hughes Dubois, Viviane Baeke et Anne-Marie Bouttiaux, Le sensible et la force : photographies de Hughes Dubois et sculptures songye, Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren (Belgique), 2004, 88 p. ISBN 9789075894608
• (French) Jean-Marie Lusuna Kazadi, Les Songye de la RDC : hommage à un héros : Ya'Gérard Lusuna, Éditions Aux Petits génies, 2003, 75p.
• (English) Allen Wardwell, Three African traditions : the art of the Dogon, Fang and Songye, Bruce Museum of arts and science, Greenwich (Conn.), 1999, 47 p. ISBN 0-9665144-2-4
• (English) Thomas Turner, Batetela, Baluba, Basonge : ethnogenesis in Zaire, Cahiers d'études africaines. 33 (4) no. 132, 1993, pages 587-612. Paris

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia. Hildegard Klein (Ed), Leo Frobenius (1873–1938), Bassonge (Songye), Ethnographische Notizen aus den Jahren 1905 und 1906, vol. 4 [is titled:] Kenyok, Luba, Songye, Tetela, Songo, Meno/Nkutu, Stuttgart : Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1990, p. 87-161

• (Portuguese) Marta Heloísa Leuba Salum, Consideraçoes sobre as madeiras que os Basonge escolheram para esculpir algumas de suas estátuas, Dédalo, 28, 1990, p. 207-226, São Paulo
• (Portuguese) Marta Heloísa (Lisy) Leuba Salum, A grande estatuária songe do Zaire, [São Paulo] : Universidade de São Paulo, fivereiro de 1990, 2 v., x, 326 p., ill., maps, 28 cm. Thesis (M.A.) Universidade de São Paulo, 1990.
• (French) Muepu Mibanga, Songye : livre des proverbes, Éditions Bouwa, 1988, 277 p.
• (French) Muepu Mibanga, Jean Sohier et Johan M. Pauwels, Songye : le recueil de jurisprudence de l'Etat indépendant du Congo jusqu'à 1967, Renapi, 1987, 128 p.
• (English) Dunja Hersak, Songye masks and figure sculpture, Ethnographica, Londres, 1985, 189 p. ISBN 0-905788-50-8

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.(English)(French) Jean Willy Mestach, Études songye : formes et symbolique : essai d'analyse/Songye Studien : Formen und Symbolik : ein analytischer Essay/Songye studies : form and symbolism : an analytical essay, Galerie Jahn, 1985, 183 p.

• (French) Viktor Kabamba Nkamany A Baleme, Art et culture songye : Initiation aux aspects de la culture Songye, Nkamanyland, 1983, 112 p.
• (English) Alan P. Merriam (1923–1980), Kifwebe and other masked and unmasked societies among the Basongye, Africa-Tervuren, 24 (3) 1978, p. 57-73 [et] 24 (4) 1978, p. 89-101, Tervuren
• (French) Roger Dechamps (+1995), L'identification anatomique des bois utilisés pour des sculptures en Afrique. V, La sculpture Songye, Africa-Tervuren, 21 (1-2) 1975, p. 27-33, Tervuren.
• (English) Alan P. Merriam (1923–1980), Change in religion and the arts in a Zairian village, African arts, 7 (4), summer 1974, p. 46-53, 95, Los Angeles
• (English) Alan P. Merriam (1923–1980), An African world: the Basongye village of Lupupa Ngye, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [1974], xxiii, 347 p. ill. 24 cm.
• (English) Alan P. Merriam (1923–1980), The Bala musician, In: Warren d'Azevedo, ed. Traditional artist in African society, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1973, p. 250-281