Forest people use whistles to communicate, even at considerable distances, and establish hunting strategies. More holes allow you to modulate the whistles and create a kind of language understandable only within the small group of hunters. The whistles are therefore often used, almost always hanging around the neck and thus become a kind of personal ornament of the hunter who customizes them with figures of loved ones or ancestors.
As often happens in the arts of Africa you can find works of great refinement in everyday objects.
This ancient example of Congolese whistle (hard to say how much Chokwe and how much Lwena) is personalized by a polite anthropomorphic head and two small crosses as well as a beautiful patina.