Ambete Harp Body Gabon Rohner Collection

The Ambete, also known as Mbete, Mbede, Mbete and Mbeti, are an ethnic group residing in the Republic of Congo near the northern frontier of Gabon and northern Gabon itself. Due to the migratory nature of the people in this region, it is challenging to trace the precise history of the Mbete culture. However, certain aspects of their life are relatively well-known from an ethnological and sociological perspective.

The Ambete do not have a centralized political organization and instead practice ancestor worship as a significant part of their religious beliefs.

The Ambete are renowned for their carved sculptures, which come in three main types: heads, busts, and full figures. The full figures are believed to be associated with ancestor worship and served either as reliquaries or were placed alongside ancestral bones in baskets. The heads and busts were likely mounted on poles and displayed in front of the chief's house, possibly serving apotropaic (warding off evil) and emblematic purposes.

Provenance: John R. Rohner Collection
Rohner, a museum curator for decades, aimed his practiced eye for authenticity to African art beginning in the early 1908s. His passion for this art only grew through the decades he built his collection––always with an aim for a broad and representative array of pieces. The collection appears in his book, Art Treasures from African Runners (2000, University Press of Colorado). 

Item #192 on pg. 123

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