TERMINOLOGY accretion a whole resulting from addition or accumulation altar any structure upon which sacrifices or other offerings are offered for religious purposes or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place Altars are usually found in shrines temples and other sacred places art and leadership art used to support the authority of sacred and secular leaders and to legitimize the concept of leadership as a social institution assemblage three dimensional composition made of various materials including but not limited to wood cloth metal and shells beds camwood red wood known also as barwood In powdered form camwood is used as both a dye and a cosmetic Camwood is rubbed on sculptural forms in many areas providing a reddish coloration consecrate to declare or set apart as sacred divination the term for a variety of practices to discover hidden knowledge or to foresee or foretell future events usually through the interpretation of signs or through the agency of spiritual forces hierarchical proportion the use of unnatural proportion to show the relative importance of figures high relief a surface with images that project almost three dimensionally liminality the state of being in between in ritual contexts medicine power based on knowledge derived from a spiritual agent and usually employed to protect individuals or an entire community through sacred formulas of natural ingredients which are often applied to the surface of a divination figure or inserted into a cavity within such a figure Considered spiritually charged substances raffia an African palm tree having large leaves leaf fibers of this plant are used for mats baskets cloth and other products regalia adornments and implements worn or carried by kings chiefs queen mothers and other royals that help to create and legitimate royal authority register one of a series of superimposed bands in a pictorial narrative or the particular levels on which motifs are placed royal treasury a collection of prestige status and power objects owned by a king or chief that include textiles clothing jewelry ceremonial objects stools or thrones sculpture and masks sacred or divine kingship the practice of associating a ruler with a deity or regarding him or her as a spiritually potent being shrine a sacred place that holds a collection of objects representing a deity or deities a specially constructed sites of ritual objects and activity visual verbal nexus dynamic interaction of visual motifs and verbal expression kente strip woven cloth heavier more elaborate labor intensive and costly materials reserved for kings or specific members of royalty Asante ade crown is the principal symbol of oba s authority Yoruba ashe or ase sacred authority and power of the ancestors Yoruba oba king Yoruba ori inu inner head Yoruba ori ode outer head Yoruba gb ni society organization consisting of both male and female elders which serves to check the abuse of power by rulers Control the choosing inauguration and burial of kings Yoruba orisha gods Yoruba ajalala royal palace Fon bocio sculptural forms considered power objects Fon Dahomey kingdom of the Fon meaning in the stomach or middle of the serpent Fon afo a Kom thing belonging to the Kom people of Cameroon Grasslands Kom fon king ruler of Cameroon Grasslands Bamum Bamileke Kom mandu yenu royal throne richness of beads Bamum nkisi pl minkisi sacred medicine Designates any number of objects thought to contain spiritual power The power is tapped for purposes of divination healing and protection from evil and is used to ensure success in hunting warfare etc Kongo bwaantshy state dress of the reigning king Kuba ndop royal portrait figure Kuba nyim king Kuba lukasa memory board read by a member of Mbudye Society as they narrate court histories maps of the royal court and locations of natural resources Luba Mbudye Society a secret association closely related to Luba royalty whose members use memory for problem solving through divination and other performances Luba mwanangana idealized representation of ancestor or important Chokwe chief Chokwe