Tumba (Kongo)

Tumba, from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum

The Kongo place stone figures called tumba (a Ki-Kongo word, pl. bitumba) on the graves of powerful people. Bitumba were created in Zaire and Angola during the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth. The term tumba comes from the Kikongo word "tumbama" which means "to be placed or set before".[1] In the Punu language of the neighbouring Republic of Congo, the word itumbe means "image, engraving, statue", showing a relation.[2]

  1. ^ Dictionary & Grammar Of The Kongo Language, pg.216
  2. ^ Parlons Yipunu, pg.152