Bakota-Mahongwe

The term Bakota is a plural of Kota, comprises all the Kota, the northern Mahongwe, with patriotic social system and the southern Obamba, with matrilineal social system, in addition to the various subgroups related to ethnicity. The style of the reliquaries, even with certain similarities, is as varied as the groups. All of them, located mainly in Gabon, were used to preserve the remains of the ancestors of high lineage, part of the skull and other bones, deposited in a cylindrical box made from barks or in a braided basket of vegetable fibers. About them, like the Byeri of the FangThe anthropomorphic figure of the keeper of the reliquary was placed. His function was, therefore, to guard the relics. The important decisions of the clan were made in the presence of the initiates and during the ceremonies in which these relics were also given worship, in funeral ceremonies intended to honor the ancestors. They were also used in divinatory or curative processes. The foundry of the ore and alloys for obtaining these metals was known to the Kotaprobably since the 10th century, although it dominates the production obtained from European metal. These metals have been indicators of the social rank and authority of the owner. For centuries, in the form of bars or small ingots, they have been used as coins.