This possibly unique female figure in the corpus of Luba sculpture is distinguished by the fine detail of its elegant elongated form. It embodies concepts of beauty, memory, power, and authority in Luba culture, where women served important roles as spirit mediums, emissaries, and advisors to Luba kings and chiefs through the twentieth century (Petridis 2008, 45; Roberts 2013, 68). Thin arms loop toward the chest with hands placed on the breasts in a gesture expressing a belief that only a woman’s body is strong enough to contain powerful spirits (such as the spirit of a chief or king) and “precepts of royalty” (Roberts and Roberts 2015, 217). The facial features of the figure are delicately rendered. A large coiffure extends down the neck, adorned with copper-alloy beads, and a string of copper-alloy beads accentuates the hips. When the figure was created, copper was scarce and highly valued (Herbert 1973, 179). The elongated torso draws attention to a scarification pattern of keloids (raised scars) that surrounds and emphasizes the umbilical hernia, the point of maternal contact. Beads and scarification are mnemonic devices. For example, each bead is a morpheme—a unit of form and meaning purposefully placed or arranged. Luba scarification patterns are named and have specific meanings; a woman decides what patterns she will wear and how she will be seen by others. These attachments and inscribed elements allow a knowing viewer or handler of the figure to “read” the sculpture. Women are acknowledged as the primary keepers of the history and memories of Luba peoples. This figure, which expresses Luba ideals of beauty, also presents the female body as a locus for Luba memory.