Báhêmbá in eastern Congo foreground kinship in ritual events that are characterized by artfulness, emergence, and community display. For example, when a man dies, a social contract still exists between his matrilineage and patrilineage and the matrilineage and patrilineage of each wife. Weeks or months after the husband’s death, a special formal discussion is held to determine if a widow will become the wife of one of her husband’s kin or if she will be released from the marital lineage ties. Candidates are proposed to her, following a prescribed order beginning with the husband’s matrilineage: his full younger brothers first, then half-brothers in the matrilineage, sisters’ sons, and then patrilineage candidates. Each candidate’s participation in this event reinforces his identity as a specific type of classificatory ‘younger brother’ or ‘sister’s child’ to the deceased husband. Even if a candidate is an unlikely match, being significantly younger than the widow or not of a compatible temperament, and the assembled group considers the match not likely to occur, it is seen as good fun to propose to the widow each potential husband who is present. No one is sure of the outcome until the widow accepts a candidate or rejects all of them in turn. This paper considers specific events -- a gathering where a young prospective bride accepts or rejects a suitor in front of matrilineage and patrilineage relatives from both sides, a formal discussion where the final palm wine is distributed to the most senior persons present, a women’s song-dance funerary performance where song lyrics obliquely signal culpability for the death, and a mock attack on a village where patrilineage relatives from another village had failed to receive an invitation to a funeral -- to explore processes by which kinship relationships are commented upon, reinforced, negotiated, and repaired in performance.