The Mboma, of which there are about thirty thousand, one of the Kongo-related groups, live in the area of Boma-Matadi on the Zaire River. They subsist on farming, hunting, fishing, and trading. In addition to wood, the Mboma used soft steatite to carve funerary figures distinguished by various attitudes-e.g., head-on-hand, cross-legged.

Excerpt from

Roslyn A. Walker, The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), 303.

• Smart History
  Read an overview of the peoples and cultures in Africa.