This book is about the work of art in Luba culture. It is a journey through the iconographies, contexts, and mnemonic landscapes of Luba royal arts, to reveal how and why they have held such prominence in Luba political histories. Most traditional African arts are arts of action, for they are endowed with capacities to preserve stability or effect change in people's lives, depending upon the ways they are used. In Luba pasts and contemporary times, the arts are dynamic agents of social, political, and spiritual transformation.