Kusu

The Kusu, plural Bakusu, are a Bantu people of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, settled chiefly in the Kibombo and Kailo territories of Maniema along the Lomami River. They arose as a branch of the Tetela and belong with them to the Anamongo cluster.

During the 1800s Arab-Swahili caravans opened the Lomami country to long-distance trade, and the Tetela groups who adopted Swahili-Muslim dress, customs and Islam came to be distinguished as Kusu.

Their sculpture borrows from the wider region: chiefly stools recall those of the Luba, power figures those of the Songye, and ancestor figures those of the Hemba, while Kusu women fashion the pottery and baskets of everyday use.