Whose art is it? US museums reexamine their African collections.

The man is seated, his legs and hands outstretched, wearing a colorful ensemble of blue and red stripes. His back is straight – he’s alert and ready to protect his descendants from misfortune and illness. 

This knee-high reliquary made of wood pegs, split cane, vegetable fiber, and cloth was once used to house specific ancestral spirits, researchers think. Such figurines are produced by ethnic Bembe in central Africa and were traditionally used to hold human remains that, according to Bembe beliefs, will pass through stages of an endless cycle of being. 

This figurine took its own zigzag journey out of Africa to end up in a small Midwest museum. Just don’t expect to find all that information on its accompanying sign. 

“Straight up donation. And that’s pretty much all we know about it,” says Laura De Becker, an associate curator