Lukasa, Luba memory board
Lukasa, tablilla mnemotécnica luba
- Date
- c. siglos XVII-XIX · confidence low
- Place
- Luba kingdom, Haut-Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Credited to
- Memory keepers (mbudye) of the Luba kingdom
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A wooden board with beads and pins arranged in patterns, which the 'men of memory' trace with their fingers to recite lineages, routes and events of the kingdom. It is a memory aid between orality and writing.
It is known from 19th-20th century collections and from the study by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen Roberts (1996); its exact age is undocumented and is assumed linked to the rise of the Luba kingdom (17th-18th centuries).
What it led to
- preservation of Luba dynastic history
- an example of three-dimensional mental mapping
- an object of study for Mary Nooter Roberts