Mintadi

The Mintadi or Bitumba, in singular Ntadi, are small stone statues, usually steatite or soapstone, carved by the Mboma living on the left bank of the Zaire River, in Lower Congo and Angola. These are small characters, sitting, usually with an arm resting on the knee and hand on the cheek in a thoughtful attitude. It does not seem that their production extends beyond the beginning of the century XIXThe Mintadi are destined to protect the tombs of ancestors. Mintadi means guardian. They are intermediaries between the ancestors and the world of the living and exercise a protective function.Some of them may be commemorative figures of kings, chiefs or notables as the drawings that sometimes bear inscriptions seem to show. They are used in funeral rituals.