The Memory Boards of the Luba

The lukasa, or memory board, is an extraordinary device developed by the Luba people of central Africa sometime in the 18th century — though it just as well could have been invented by Borges. It is a small wooden plank studded with beads and incised with ideographs that represent the vast social, political, genealogical, and geographical history of the Luba people. The arrangement of the beads and their colors serve as mnemonics for a secret and esoteric society of Luba memory men who are trained in the lukasa’s interpretation and who use the boards to recount Luba history.
These images of the front and back of a lukasa come from Memory: Luba Art and the Making of History by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts.
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