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The wooden figure comes from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo and was probably made around 1900 by the indigenous Songye community of Batempa. It is a cult figure used in religious or ritual acts. There are remnants of blue decoration on the head.

The object belonged to Eduard von der Heydt's collection of non-European objects and was given to the museum in October 1962. Of interest is the round paper label with a metal rim, the inscriptions 'Museum Umlauff Hamburg' and 'Congo' indicating the provenance of the figure: The label shows that the object was owned by Heinrich Umlauff's Hamburg Naturalien- und Ethnografica-Handlung. There is evidence that Eduard von der Heydt acquired several of his non-European objects from Umlauff in the 1920s.

The figure comes from a former Belgian colony: Belgium's colonial history in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo began in 1885, when King Leopold II declared the area his personal property. Under Leopold's rule, the people were cruelly exploited, in particular by being forced to extract rubber, which led to countless human rights violations and many millions of deaths. When the Belgian state took over in 1908, the economic exploitation and oppression of the population continued. Local structures were largely destroyed and people were denied access to education and political participation. Congo gained independence from Belgium in 1960, but the colonial past left a legacy of inequality and political instability. Decades of dictatorship followed until 1997. Since then, civil wars and violence have plagued the country, which remains unstable despite peace agreements.