Name of Artifact:‌ Male Commemorative Post (Ngya)

Original Country:‌ South Sudan

Year of Production:‌ Late 19th century

Material:‌ Mahogany

Dimensions:‌ H. 75 1/2 in. (191.8 cm)

Current Location:‌ The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Background Information:‌
This imposing mahogany sculpture is a male commemorative post, known as “Ngya,” created by a Bongo artist from Tonj in western South Sudan. High-ranking hunters and warriors in Bongo communities were honored posthumously by their families through such larger-than-life memorials. Carved from the trunk of a mahogany tree, the sculpture features a towering, elongated body framed by a knob-like head and long legs with slightly flexed knees.

Originally, the figure had arms; beads accentuated the now-empty eye cavities; and the vertical plinth extending below the feet was planted in the earth. Its installation at the honoree’s grave site a year after his death was accompanied by a feast, during which relatives and other guests recited his genealogy and achievements. In some instances, the sculpture was inscribed with notches to denote the subject’s victories in battle or over prey, and additional depictions of wives and offspring might be added to his burial plot.

Sudan, with its capital Khartoum centrally located at the junction of the Blue Nile and White Nile Rivers, was established in 1956 as one of the largest and most culturally diverse nations in Africa, encompassing a populace related to nineteen major linguistic groups and a Muslim majority in the north. Following a series of devastating civil wars, South Sudan achieved its independence in 2011. This work arrived in the West at the end of the first of those conflicts, which spanned 1955 to 1972.