Mboko (Luba bowl-bearer)
Female bowl-bearing figure used by *bilumbu* royal diviners as an oracular instrument; the bowl is filled with white chalk (*mpemba*) or water during consultation, and the figure commemorates the mythic first diviner Mijibu wa Kalenga.
Mboko is a bowl-bearing female figure of the Luba, used by bilumbu (royal diviners) as an oracular instrument and as the spirit-spouse vessel of the diviner's tutelary spirit. The figure kneels or stands with a calabash or carved bowl extended forward; during consultation the bowl is filled with white chalk (mpemba), river water or other spirit-activating substances. The figure commemorates the mythic first Luba diviner, Mijibu wa Kalenga.
Mboko is distinct from the female caryatid stool (kipona) in both function and context, even though both are female: the mboko is a portable divinatory instrument operated by an individual bilumbu, while the kipona is a politically symbolic seat installed in a royal compound. The distinction matters for provenance research and for reading the object's intended use in performance (Roberts & Roberts 1996; Neyt 1994).