Ritual & language· Bushong (Kuba)
Ndop
Kuba royal portrait statue. Depicts the king with the personal emblem (*ibol*) chosen on his accession.
A ndop is a wooden royal portrait of a Kuba king (nyim). The figure is seated, cross-legged, on a low rectangular plinth; the king wears the royal headdress (shody), holds a ceremonial knife or hammer, and shows the ibol — a personal emblem chosen at his coronation that identifies which king is being honoured.
Ndop are not commissioned per king — only a handful exist for the entire Kuba dynasty (founded around 1625). They are dynastic, not biographical. The British Museum holds the ndop of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul, regarded as the canonical example.