ABSTRACT
The Luba, and neighboring peoples of the southeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), have a rich heritage of folklore and related oral history, including epic poetry, proverbs, maxims, king lists, genealogies, migration accounts, and religious songs. These Luba artistic forms do not exist in isolation, but rather in tandem with visual arts and performances. The symbiosis of the verbal and the visual deserves to be better understood because it places African art on the threshold between art history and literature. Just as stories evoke images, so do objects evoke stories, and creativity flourishes in this multimedia ferment.
