Judge E. Gorlia's first journey in the Belgian Congo from December 1909 to January 1912.
In 1911, on his first tour of inspection, Judge Gorlia travelled by foot from Lusambo to Dilolo. Until 1912, the Luba, the Songye, the Kanioka, the Lunda and the Chokwe territories extending southward to Dilolo, were administered as part of the Congo-Kasai district with headquarters at Lusambo.
In the savanna country, where hunting is the main activity and settlements are more or less temporary, straw houses are more frequent in the Chokwe villages.
The Chokwe, from childhood onward, are initiated into the execution of sand drawings. These drawings are like ideograms that evoke plants, animals, objrects, places, fables, or legends. The same vernacular term, "sona" (derived from the verb kusona meaning to draw, to paint, to write) designates both the colored drawings on the head-covers of the ritual masks performed by specialists, and the murals that adult men and women execute to adorn the exterior walls of their house.
General:
Title source: Archives staff; title not provided by photographer.
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