Gabonese Mahongwe People Reliquary: "Osseyba"

This is a Gabonese Mahongwe altar figure, called "osseyba," to protect ancestors' relics."

The Mahongwe center their religious and social lives around ancestor worship. At the death of a chief, the front of his skull would be decorated with metal and rubbed with magical powders. This relic would be kept in a basket protected by reliquary figures covered with brass strips and copper wires. The figures on top of the reliquary also served to protect the relics from malicious actions of witches and malefactors and themselves were handled with care and reverence.

As part of an ancestor cult known as 'bwete', the baskets were placed in village temples and generally consisted of two figures, one larger than the other. The larger represented the founder of the lineage and the smaller a descendent of the lineage. Only the initiates of the lineage had access to this sacred place. At the time of the initiation into the secret society, each clan's chief would dance, holding the reliquary.

Source:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/310863
See Kerchache et al's "ART OF AFRICA")