Loango city on the Atlantic coast, in a 17th century print from Olfert Dapper’s, Description de lÁfrique (French, German, and original 1665 Dutch editions are evident in the inscriptions). Founded in the 12th century as one of a cluster of Equatorial African kingdoms, Loango was in full engagement with Europeans and global trade by the 16th century. Scenes include: king's palace; wives' compound; crier's tower; royal wine house; royal dining house; public audience court; royal garden; and wives' garden.
The King of Loango, late 17th century
Description on picture: "The King of Loango hardly leaves his palace except for solemn holidays, or for some event of great importance, such as receiving ambassadors from foreign princes, to appease conflicts, to hunt a leopard which has ravaged Loango . . . . He also appears on the first day that his own fields are cultivated, and when his vassals bring their tribute and come to pay him homage. They choose for this occasion a large place in the center of the city, where they raise his throne. It is a seat of black and white wickerwork, covered with mats that are embellished with rare objects" (Dapper, p. 330; our translation).
The city of Loango, in modern-day Republic of Congo, was three miles from the coast. In addition to the King's residence, Loango featured a huge market where artisans, smiths, cap makers, potters, bead makers, carpenters, vintners, fishermen, and canoe makers sold their wares.
Reference:
Decompiling Dapper: A Preliminary Search for Evidence (History in Africa [1990], vol. 17, pp. 187-190). Source: Olfert Dapper, Description de l'Afrique. Traduite du Flamand (Amsterdam, 1686; 1st ed., 1668), p. 331. (Copy in the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University)
This 1786 engraving gives an exact description of their clothing . . . their loincloth is made from 'macout' a local term meaning fabric made from straw. With the advent of trade with Europeans, the loincloth came to be made of various fabrics, including linen, cotton, silk, or even velvet. They are excessively decorated with red coral, the ultimate luxury . . . Rich people wear a long silver chain that fits low around their waist. But out of their apparel, the most important is a fur pelt with groups of small bells that they wear near their 'natural parts'; it is what they call their 'canda'. This means skin. This part of their clothing is their seal of honor" (pp. 70-72; our translation).
The natives are known by the generic appellation of Fiots, i.e. "Blacks", and belong to the great Bantu family.
Sotheby's Auction
Location Paris
Double-headed dog
The power figure, Lot 102, is 36 1/4 inches long and has a modest estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. It sold for $114,000 including the buyer's premium.
According to MacGaffey (1993: 42-43), in his research on a double-headed dog figure in the collection of the British Museum 'Dogs have a special place in Kongo thinking about the world of spirits. As domestic animals, they are at home both in the village, land of the living, and in the forest, home of the dead. Some say that on the way to the village of the dead a traveler passes through a village of dogs . . . Dogs have "four eyes," two for this world and two for the other; that is why Kozo sometimes has heads that face in two directions. Dogs are also hunters. They held Nkondo, "the hunter," to track witches.'
Power figures of this scale with highly imbedded surfaces served socio-judicial functions. The figure is extensively imbedded with nails and blades and has a hollowed square at the center of its back for the insertion of magi materials, no longer extant. The piece was collected by Victor Ruffy, a Swiss forestry engineer working in the Congo circa 1923.
Activated by the ceremonies of the nganga, or healer, each nail or attached fiber served as a contract to end disputes or as a cure for illness.
History of Region
Loango, located in the Republic of Congo, is a kingdom along the west coast of central Africa, just north of Point Noire in Congo Brazzaville. Loango became the capital of the Kongo region after Mbanza Kongo was ruined in 1665 in the Battle of Ambouilla. The Loango Coast lies within Gabon, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the heart of Loango lies within the Republic of Congo. It is one of nine provinces belonging to the Kongo Kingdom.
During the 15th century after the Portuguese reached Kongo, they were soon followed by other European powers. Trade emerged and transformed the societies within Kongo. Loango became a key location for the Atlantic Trade with the Europeans who brought manufactured goods, cloth, liquor, guns, and whatever else they thought they could get a fair trade for. With such things, they purchased slaves, metals, and raw materials, including ivory. Trade altered the Loango society, and by the 19th century trade was the dominating way of life in much of the region. Slave trade had become a huge industry amongst the Loango Coast, as the number of slaves exported rose above 10,000 a year.
Carved ivory tusk Loango coast, Western Equatorial Africa, late 19th to early 20th century
The 76 figures of the ivory are displayed in various poses and modes of dress: adults and children; male and female; dressed in European clothing, others in African raffia fiber from the palm tree; stooped over, using a walking cane; a child seeking its mother's breast; a couple in embrace; figures "floating" in the air; figures on the ground; a prisoner on his knees, apparently bound.
Scholars will compare this ivory to others and analyze its motifs, vignettes, themes, and styles. They will seek to determine its age, the atelier of its origin, and the significance of the figures. Whatever interpretation further study may yield, we may safely observe that the carved ivories from the pre-colonial Congo coast are a creative self-representation by the artists of their society and their world, as they imagined the desires and fancies of prospective buyers-merchants, travelers, other middlemen.
During this time was when the carved ivory tusk was purchased by Wilhelm Hamburger. He bought the tusk in the early 20th century in India. Germany was at the height of its colonial empire and the trend was to have collections of artifacts from expeditions. After being passed down through three generations of the Hamburger family, the tusk eventually arrived in the United States. (source)
Dutch mission to the Congolese king Don Alvarez in 1642.
This embassy took place after the Dutch conquest of Loanda in 1642.
Dr. Olfert Dapper published a large number of books after 1663.
Photo from Dapper, Olfert: Naukeurige Beschrijvingen der Afrikaensche gewesten, p. 580
