Origin Traditions and History in Central Africa

Author(s): John K. Thornton

Source: African Arts, Vol. 37, No. 1, Explorations of Origins (Spring, 2004), pp. 32-37+93-
94
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3338010
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 Origin Trad itions
and His tory
in Central Africa
JOHN K. THORNTON

istorians using oral the origins of kingdoms in central Africa Jew), and thus a foreigner to Kongo, he
traditions must con- are essentially political documents, and served as Kongo's ambassador to the
tinually grapple with like politics they change over time, sub- Holy See at a crucial time, when the Vati-
traditions of origin, ject to the hard whim of pragmatic reali- can was considering making Kongo the
for unlike scholars of ties. Just as American jurists wrangle over seat of the first bishop on mainland Afri-
religion, folklore, or the Founding Fathers' intention in writ- ca (Fig. 2). As such, and as a "fidalgo of
ideology, they must ing the Constitution, and have recourse the royal house" as his letter of creden-
determine what is to historical studies to establish, for exam- tials from Kongo's king Alvaro I states,5
historical and what is legendary in these ple, what their attitudes toward a "well- Lopes was surely privy to the version of
ancient memories. Yet for Africa these regulated militia" might have been, so for Kongo's history that circulated in the
traditions are all that historians have to central Africans the story of the origin of capital; as a trusted ambassador he must
reconstruct the origins of the societies political units is a fundamentally consti- have presented it accurately in Europe.
that they study. Thus, early European his- tutional matter. Lopes's written text is lost to us, but it
torians of central Africa-for example, We have an insight into this process formed the basis, along with his oral
the great missionary historian Giovanni in central Africa that is not always pos- testimony, of Filippo Pigafetta's book,
Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo, who sible in other places on the continent Relatione del Reame di Congo et delle cincon-
wrote Angolan history in the mid-seven- because of the region's long tradition of vincine contrade (1591).6 That source does
teenth century (Cavazzi 1687)-anchored literacy, especially in the Kingdom of not deal explicitly with the origin of the
their research in oral traditions.1 Historians Kongo, located in what is now north- Kingdom of Kongo, but in asides that
working during the early colonial period western Angola. Thanks to its own liter- deal with the history of the provinces,
used oral tradition as well: Joseph van ate traditions, and the fact that its early it seems likely that the history of the
Wing wrote a history of the Kongo in 1920 conversion to Christianity (in 1491) gave country was conceived as something like
in which he mixed oral traditions he had it an unusually large number of literate this: The Kingdom of Kongo was formed
collected with documentary research. This visitors, Kongo provides an excellent when several independent provinces came
approach, a reliance upon a combination model for illuminating how the process together. The focus seems to have been
of oral tradition and archival research, has might work in areas that do not have a on the voluntary nature of the original
since been employed by historians in every similar history of literacy4 (Fig. 1). To kingdom, thus a federation, although
corner of Africa. understand how politics changed origin some of the provinces were conquered
Jan Vansina's influential book De la tra- stories throughout the region, we might by force (Pigafetta 1591:37-38). This ver-
dition orale (1961) has served as a manifesto first witness the process in Kongo and sion of Kongo's history probably reflects
for oral history's use by the modern gen- then make some observations about the the relatively decentralized nature of
eration of Africanist historians. Vansina's political nature of accounts of origins Kongo's polity in the immediately pre-
methodological strictures, while not al- of the Lunda Empire and its neighbors, ceding period and the power of some of
ways followed, have given this resource where a detailed local chronicle preserved the provinces.
an academic status. Seen as an "African in oral tradition has influenced much of The origin story and the politics
voice" in contrast to the accounts of travel-
the history of the interior regions of west changed when the next set of oral tradi-
ers from Europe or America, oral traditioncentral Africa. tions was written down in the mid-sev-
is often evoked in discussions of African enteenth century. These texts were put
history even if it is not always used.2 together by European missionaries, first
While some types of oral tradition read
Early European Accounts by the Jesuit Mateus Cardoso in 1624 and
like chronicles and are perhaps as reliable, The earliest insights we have into the ori- then by the Capuchin missionary Giovanni
at least, as the chronicles of the Middle gin of Kongo were set in writing in 1588 Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo in 1668
Ages,3 traditions of origin are less well by Duarte Lopes. Although Lopes was a (but probably also based on Jesuit sources,
regarded. This is because the histories of Portuguese New Christian (converted most likely the now lost chronicle of Jodo

32 african arts ? srinlg 2004

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1. Crucifix. Kongo peoples, Angola or Democrat-
ic Republic of the Congo. 16th-early 17th cen-
tury. Brass, h. 27.3cm (103/4"). The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Ernst Anspach,
1999. 1999.295.7.

The Kingdom of Kongo's early conversion to Chris-

tianity and the subsequent influx of Europeans
created a literate tradition. Numerous written his-
torical accounts make it easier to trace how poli-
tics affected stories of origin over approximately
four centuries.

de Pavia, composed around 1635).7 The

Jesuits' mission, founded in 1619, was dose
to the royal family, and the Jesuits were
deeply interested in Kongo's affairs, so that
it seems likely that the missionaries' ac- : I.
counts are well founded in the version that
circulated at court.
In these Jesuit-authored accounts, there
is no mention of a federation. Instead the
first king, Lukeni lua Nimi, is presented
as a conqueror who came from the north,
on the other side of the Congo River. In
Cardoso's account, he was the younger i ~
son of a king, unlikely to succeed to power
after his father, and seeking a new king-
dom of his own. In Cavazzi's telling he P'"
commits a dreadful double homicide,
stabbing his pregnant mother through
the womb; then, gathering his followers,
who are encouraged rather than repelled
by this gruesome murder, he conquers
Kongo. The version written by Cavazzi
clearly engaged an already existing, con-
tradictory historiography that included
the emphasis, in Lopes's earlier version,
on provincial privileges, but it character-
izes these privileges as granted by the
king only after conquest as an act of kind-
ness. Thus the older tradition survived
in the new.
Political motivations most likely under-
lie this transformation of tradition. The
two Kongo kings who dispatched Lopes
to Rome, Alvaro I and II (together ruled
1568-1614), underwent a long process
of centralizing authority, pushing their
claims against provinces like Soyo and
Mbata that did not easily cede their own
claims. Cardoso, in his version, stresses
that the king gave out the right to rule
provinces, not for life but at the king's
pleasure-clearly a slap at the concept of COURTESY OF THE PHOTOGRAPH STUDIO, THE METROPOUTAN MUSEUM OF ART

provincial federation that was implicit in

the earlier tradition. The royal version
thus represented the marching orders of
a new order, determined to centralize
power, revenue, and decision making at
the court. Descriptions of the Kongo gov-
ernment during this period make it clear
that the program was largely successful
(see Thornton 1983).
Kongo centralization did not last, how-
ever. In 1665, following the death of King
Ant6nio I at the Battle of Ulanga (Mbwila),
the country underwent a long and disas-
trous civil war. Its proud capital of Sio
Salvador (Fig. 3) was destroyed, and, in
1678, abandoned. Rival kings built forti-
fled capitals in the north, east, southeast, of Kongo's origin story, one old and one
and western parts of the country, but new. In the old story, told by Bernardo
none were strong enough to overcome da Gallo (1999:46-47), Lukeni lua Nimi
their rivals and restore the kingdom. conquered the country to avenge an in-
Finally, toward the end of the century, sult pronounced against his mother by
Pedro IV, who made his base in the rocky a ferryman.
mountain fortress of Kibangu east of the The new story was related by Fran-
ruined capital, sought to unite the coun- cesco da Pavia (in Toso 1999:21), the key
try by diplomacy. He sponsored or partic- diplomatic player in Pedro IV's negoti-
ipated in several round-robin diplomatic ations. It told of Kongo's unification by a
efforts, working with Capuchin priests as "wise and skillful blacksmith" who man-
intermediaries, and eventually managed aged to win election to the position of
to win unification in 1709. In 1710 two
king by universal consent because he set-
tled their disputes so successfully. Da
Capuchin priests produced two versions

spring 2004 - african arts 33

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Pavia's version, which effectively reflect-
ed the vision that a king like Pedro IV had
of his country and its future, draws on
widespread central African imagery of
blacksmiths as mediating figures, whose
production of steel was likened to women
giving birth. Pedro's diplomatic gambit
was successful, for during the next fifty
years, the concept of rotating kingship, in
which each of the major contenders would
rule in turn, was accepted in theory if not
always in practice (da Savona 1976; also
in L'Italiafrancescana 1974:135-214). Thus
a diplomatic leader had hearkened to an
origin story of a blacksmith king to break
the older version of the haughty con-
queror giving and taking provinces at
his whim.
Although the blacksmith king does not
reemerge in later tellings of Kongo's ori-
gin, neither does the conqueror. In 1782,
King Jos4 I, recently having defeated his
rivals in battle, had someone in his court
create a document of Kongo history, the
earliest document on Kongo's past writ-
ten by a Kongo. Published three quarters
of a century later in the Boletim Oficial
da Coldnia de Angola from a dilapidated
original in the Kongo archives, this docu-
ment does not mention Lukeni lua Nimi
at all, and indeed, he appears to have
Nineteenth-Century
passed more or less out of oral tradi-
tion as well.8 Revisions
Instead, the new origin story focuses
on the coining of Christianity to Kongo
and on the reign of Afonso I (1509-42), by
this time, and up to the recent past, re-
garded as the founder of the country.
After relating the story of the conversion
of Kongo by Portuguese missionaries in
Revolution in Europe, Kongo underwent
1491, the account goes on to describe the
glories of Afonso, whom contemporary its own profound economic transforma-
tion. The kings and indeed even the old2. Cathedral of Sao Salvador, constructed in 1548.
Europeans had called the "Apostle of Kon-
go" because of his zeal to convert the aristocracy lost much of their power; newJohn
country. In this account, Afonso's zeal upstart generations, enriched by long-dis-This edifice became the cathedral of Sao Salva-
",
-
?~5;~~
---; ;-;-??;; ?~-~~
~?
-
D
- ~P ~~c~ti~~?"~:;
3aftrican
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extended to his mother, who refused to tance tr
remove a small idol that she wore around directly
her neck in defiance of her son's order ed them
that all idols be destroyed. After pleading during
with his mother to obey, the king finally substant
ordered her buried alive. This story had Bwaka M
been in circulation in Kongo since proba- descend
bly the 1680s (Thornton 1998:192), but only of Kong
in the mid-eighteenth century did it be- man. En
come a central moment in the foundation controlli
of the kingdom (Fig. 4). wealth a
Among Afonso's important acts, ac- 2000b:35
cording to the 1782 account, was the cre- The new
ation of the Order of Christ (though in fact be imita
the order was first created not by Afonso long-dis
but by his late-sixteenth-century succes- ily relat
sor, Alvaro I). The mid-eighteenth-centu- areas, c
ry kings of Kongo manifested their power network
and extended their influence by granting ship net
knighthoods in the Order of Christ. In- tradition
deed, Jose (and his successors) judicious- along th
ly gave out these knighthoods to his al place
supporters and selected rivals as a means Patalao (
to bolster his position in the precarious Portug
world of the king. Hence, the origin story 1491) o
shifted to specifically Christian themes, routes a
typified by Afonso's burying his mother lages th
and operationalized by the founding of ers or t
the Order of Christ. could cl
all those who were members of the clan
(Thornton 2000a:461-62).
In 1856, as this process was beginning
to unfold, Adolph Bastian, a German ex-
plorer visiting Kongo, noted that the first
The nineteenth century witnessed yet king of the country had proclaimed the
another transformation of Kongo's poli-law to the twelve clans that made up the
country.
tics and a radical shifting of its story of Bastian knew no Portuguese or
origin. After the abolition of the slave
Kikongo and had spent little time in Kon-
trade in 1852 and the world-wide trade
revolution brought about by the Industrial
This page:
Mbanza Kongo, Angola, September 2000. Photo:
K. Thornton.
dor in 1596. It is the only surviving church from the
Kingdom of Kongo's capital. Missionaries closely
connected to the court recorded the oral tradi-
tions about the origin of Kongo that were ad-
vanced by the kingdom's rulers.
Opposite page:
-~:~ *:"
Top: 3. Mbanza Kongo (S~o Salvador). From Olfert
Dapper's Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaen-
sche gewesten (1639-89).
The city is represented at the height of its power.
The king's palace is in the foreground, and the
cathedral is positioned on the cliff beside it.
Remnants of the main road, palace, and cathe-
dral documented in this print survive today. Foun-
dations mark the site of the palace, Kongo's only
two-story building, which was built in 1648.
Bottom: 4. A star of modern construction near the
airport runway. Mbanza Kongo, Angola, Septem-
ber 2000. Photo: John K. Thornton.
The star is said to mark the spot where the
Christian king of Kongo, Afonso I (r. 1509-42),
once regarded as Kongo's founder, allegedly
buried his mother alive when she would not
remove an idol of the old religion. The Kongo cul-
tural leader Nsaka ne Vunda said prayers to
Afonso's mother at this site during the author's
visit in 2002.
arts spring 2004
go. He reported this tale on the strength
of hearing it told in Kikongo to an inter-
preter, who translated it into Portuguese ,W iiiiiW?900 ?
to a second interpreter, who retranslated
aI, CA.
it into English. Given the possibilities for
error, this can only be considered a hint
of the next stage of the origin story, of
Kongo as a confederation of clans (Bastian
1973 [1859]:124).
In 1910 Petelo Boka, a catechist in the
Redemptorist missionary station at Vungu,
wrote down a series of historical and
ethnographic notes about the Kongo. He
wrote them in Kikongo and in a school 4f ?

notebook,9 including the histories of a

number of clans and a story of an un-
named early king who founded the king-
dom by sending out the various clans from
his capital to take up their posts in the
countryside (Fig. 5; Boka 1910:87-92).10 It
was probably not the only such version
(perhaps Bastian had heard a similar
story), but it became important because
Redemptorist missionaries decided to pub-
lish it. In 1928 Jean Cuvelier, head of edu-
cation for the mission, and eventually to
become bishop of Matadi, published the
story along with a synthetic history of Kon-
go in the missionary newspaper Kukiele.11demands
The newspaper, and Cuvelier's convictionlabor, leading to and
that Kongo could be brought more close-
ly into the Catholic fold by recalling its
Christian past, made Boka's story the
starting point for a new search for Kon-
go's origin in the original clans, number-
ing either nine or twelve, that settled the trative district surrounding Sio Salvador produced a detailed linguistic study of all
country, while also providing the found-
ers of the rest of the clans in the country. Kongo's life as a political entity was over,
While Boka was writing, however, the
Kingdom of Kongo was ceasing to exist
as a political unit. Pedro V (1857-91) had As the last kings of Kongo struggled
accepted a status as a vassal of Portugal
at the start of his reign, and more offi-
cially in 1885. From this point Kongo sov- to produce significant writings in Kikongo, Swedish-sponsored Kikongo newspaper
ereignty was slowly undermined by
i?,
of the Portuguese
Tulante Andre Buta in 1913-14. In the
aftermath of the unsuccessful revolt, the linguistic unity of the Kikongo-speaking
kingdom was formally abolished, and the
king, a puppet of the Portuguese, allowed ably beyond the boundaries of the old
official authority only over the adminis- kingdom. The Baptists in Sio Salvador
(Thornton 2000b:351-58). The Kingdom of
and it was transformed into a new sort
of symbol.
with the Portuguese, Protestant mission-
aries moved into the country and began
mostly confined to newspapers that com-
A, f 1
++
. .. ..
bine residents fo
a numerous
major biblicalrevolt
stories. Various led b
missionaries gradually came to realize the
peoples, a unity that extended consider-
these dialects, and began serious work on
a translation of the Bible, accompanied by
a large dictionary, all compiled before the
turn of the century (Bentley 1887). In 1910,
the same year Boka wrote his history in
the Kikongo promoted by missionaries,
Kavuna Simon published an article in the
Misanii Miayenge, noting the fact that many
people in the region spoke this same lan-
guage and calling on all people who spoke
it to unite (see MacGaffey 1993:22-23). In
the new colonial environment, the King-
dom of Kongo was becoming the Bakon-
go "tribe."12
As a "tribe," the Bakongo became both
larger and less historically defined than
the kingdom had been. Although many
Kongo continued to search their oral his-
tory for the stories of their clans, and the
question of the genealogy of the Kongo
continued to be pursued, the stories of
their origins increasingly became more
elaborate. In 1956 another Redemptorist,
Joseph de Munck, published the first edi-
tion of an extremely influential Kikongo
history of Kongo, relating that the first
Kongo had probably migrated from Egypt
(de Munck 1956:7).13 His tale perhaps re-
lated to colonial mythology (such as the
famous Hamitic myth, which linked all
achievement in sub-Saharan Africa to
"white" migrants from Egypt) as much as
it did to anything he heard in tradition,
though de Munck was a tireless pursuer

spring 2004 - african arts 35

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of oral traditions, organizing whole expe- DRC and Angola by a wide range of peo-
ditions into Angola to recover as many r ,t
ple, both educated and rural (Fig. 6).
'"+ "
clan traditions as possible.14 r- '--"
F" '~P: ~ O c

;1; c; 6 ~.r
?-; ,??";
'hr Lunda Origin Myths
The Postcolonial -r i 1"!
,: _d~ r:: This long tale of origins in Kongo provides
~1 d ':";r4~! :F~?~
Consciousness Sp~ I ~-?I--~ -i .?~;~ii~~sc=s~r~~~mss~t~?~~ ~-I~
UJlr ;1&;~
us with an overview of more than 400
laY-f,"P.!"~t~c~kI~ ~~-;~'~;;-L~grlBa~R~L~r~~8F"
i.
years of change, and reveals the intimate
Nationalist politics in the Belgian Congo,
i;:
relationship between politics and myths of
i,

especially as the country moved toward Padt

'~3E~~~4-~:57;~?t.~';?,~~ origin. It is probably not possible to make
independence, was increasingly based on a similar reconstruction for anywhere else
i,

ethnic lines, and there were benefits ~Ei13~1 to t, in Atlantic Africa (though it is in other
i" ; I ~2~ I: i.-
making one's ethnicity as large and :'? en- ;:I areas with long literate traditions, such as
.--- ?Li";~fj~,~f;~,~_r?~'~ ;'~
compassing as possible. For Kongo, Joseph Y~~p; ~~fF~ the Western Sudan or Ethiopia), and thus
Kasavubu's ABAKO party represented to demonstrate the flexibility of this ele-
their ethnic interests, and among Kasa-
i:

".fb~-~c~
ment of traditional history. But we can
vubu's followers were two critical histor- 3' p~?; get some hints of how the process works
ical thinkers, Rafael Batsikama and Andre S~wri~-r* rr
elsewhere by examining the traditions of
Fu-Kiau Bunseki. In 1969 Fu-Kiau pub- '4 i; ?`: ~~ ,? the Lunda Empire to the east of Kongo,
i;C~7

lished, in Kikongo, an important study of I I'r? .a~ f-...e

t~ '"' c;?^e;
which claims to provide its own key to
Kongo religion and philosophy. He de- the history of a vast area of central Africa.
voted some attention to the question of Not only was mid-nineteenth-century
?J P~i Pr

h 4

ultimate origins of the Bakongo, which i b

- Lunda itself a huge empire, certainly the
~bLZ::L~
he derived locally, though on the north largest surface area of any political unit in
bank of the Congo (Fu-Kiau 1969:13-14).1s5 d te-~3~ rEl-'~Qki~'? IT
sub-Equatorial Africa, if not in all of pre-
Batsikama's history also placed its ori- COURTESY OF HEIN VANHEE colonial Africa, but its traditions also had
gins locally among three clans, the "three a place in many surrounding regions. The
stones on which Kongo cooked," in the cially as refugees crossed and recrossed Lunda traditions are important because
words of a popular proverb (Batsikama the border between the two countries. the zone to which they refer has not had
1971:179-235). For both men, the ideas of In its Angolan manifestation, ideasany of documented history to speak of that
an ancient and distant origin were still too ancient Egyptian origins have crept back predates the first visitors from Europe in
much of a colonial myth to be accepted. in, now cleansed by time of their colonial- the mid-nineteenth century, when Joaquim
Postindependence politics in Zaire ist implications, and perhaps even dis- Rodrigues Graqa left detailed notes of his
brought a flourishing of ideas, the en- tantly enriched by the acceptance in some journey to its capital in 1843 (Rodrigues
couragement to write in the vernacular circles of the works of Cheikh Anta Diop. Graqa 1890). Any modem understanding
languages, and a continued ethnic con- While in Luanda in 1997, I met Manuel of the history of the region must perforce
sciousness. As Mobutu's regime drew to Ferraz Alberto, leader of one of the small, rely on the oral traditions.
a close, Muanda Nsemi formed a ethno- recognized restorationist parties, the Sov-Rodrigues Graga did not record any his-
nationalist religious organization, drawing ereign Conservadores Party. His platform tory, however, and it was not until close
on the traditions of independent churches included ample demonstrations that Kon- to the end of the century that systemat-
and religious movements that had arisen go had originated in Ancient Egypt, ic andrecording took place. German travelers
in the Kongo area since Simon Kibangu's argued that an ancient migration lay at partial recordings, but it was left to
made
new church in 1921. Called Bundu dia the root of this connection.17 the Portuguese visitor Henrique Dias de
Kongo, the movement provided Muanda Meanwhile, another group, the proj- Carvalho to make a thorough and exhaus-
with ample opportunities to devise andect Mizaza, which sought to enhance tive collection and documentation of the
propagate his own visions of the Kongo respect for ancient Kongo customs, tradition or- in 1885 (Dias de Carvalho 1890).
past. Increasingly, Muanda saw the Bakon-ganized a conference in 1999 th-at includ- In this version, Lunda began when a wan-
go as the ancestors and founders of most ed an account by Mbuki Nabi Lukombo dering hunter from Luba named Cibinda
of Bantu Africa, in his many publications Bisuaki of a long migration that began Ilunga met and eventually married Lweji,
stretching its borders to Zambia, Namibia, first in Ethiopia in the year 4200 "before a Lunda princess, and they in turn found-
even to Tanzania. He fell upon elabora-the era of the fish." This migration took ed the great empire. Following this "Lun-
tions of the "three stones" proverb that the Bena Kongo to Egypt in 4000, then da Love Story" as the anthropologist
had interested Batsikama, but declaredhad them migrating, after the reign Victor
of Turner dubbed it, a disappointed
them to include whole African zones that Pharaoh Akhnaten, back to Ethiopiabrother in named Kinguri set out westward
encompassed most of west central Africa.16 time to be present when Makeda mar- in rebellion, eventually settling on the
Muanda's ideas have spread to Angola ried Solomon to form the Falasha in Ethi- Kwango River and founding the Imban-
as well as within Zaire (now the Demo-opia. Subsequent migrations found them gala kingdom of Kasanje. In order to bring
cratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC). In in Great Zimbabwe, Zululand, southern the recalcitrant brother back, Lweji and
Angola, ethnicity was as strong as in Zaire, Angola to found the Herero, and finally her husband dispatched various relatives
and in the liberation war and subsequent to Kongo proper.18 and children to pursue Kinguri, and they
civil war, Kongo chose loyalty to its own These intellectual theories have made in turn founded their own dynasties in
ethnic party, FNLA, and then to locally their way to the countryside. An account the surrounding territories (Dias de Car-
organized branches of the UNITA party. by Joio Paulinho, regarded in Mbanza valho 1890:51-122).20
In the 1992 elections, the ruling MPLAKongo as the best traditional historian in The resulting tale created a structure
party deliberately chose to fund and orga- the region, has the Kongo originating in that connected to the Lunda Empire vir-
nize Kongo unity or restorationist partiesEthiopia and makes the "three stones" to tually every west central African state
(both FNLA and its successors have sought be Gabon, the DRC, and Angola.19 While known to it in the late nineteenth century
the restoration of the Kingdom of Kongo these theories are unlikely to have any by some sort of genealogical tie. But tradi-
as a goal). A great deal of Bundu dia Kon- scholarly impact, as opposed to the "Ha- tions recorded among the Imbangala in
go's ideas, combined with local lore, thus mitic hypothosis," which was equally far- the seventeenth century reveal only an
entered the Angolan political agenda, espe- fetched, they are believed in both the origin in the central highlands in Angola,

36 african arts * spring 2004

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not deep in the interior.21 The traditional
link probably developed in the nineteenth
century, when strong Imbangala-Lunda
trading connections developed, for by the
1880s Imbangalas had accepted the story
of their Lunda origins.22 Indeed, it seems
likely that stories of Lunda migration in-
filtrated the origin traditions of many
states that traded with Lunda during the
era of the ivory and rubber trades (Fig.
7). Viye, in Angola's central highlands,
claimed origins in the nearby country of
Songo in the eighteenth century, but by
the mid-nineteenth century both Songo
and Viye had added a link to Lunda,
though each retained memories of more
local origins (Correia 1797).23
Traditions changed again when the Bel-
gians decided to use the Lunda Empire's
Opposite page:
Top: 5. The first page of Petelo Boka's 1910 ac-
count of Kongo's oral traditions.
Written in Kikongo by a catechist in a Redemp-
torist missionary station, this account includes a
story of the founding of the kingdom. The docu-
ment was formerly in the Redemptorist archives,
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven.
This page:
Top: 6. Joo Paulinho displays his bracelets of
authority (malungu). Kizau village, near Mbanza
Kongo, Angola, September 27, 2002. Photo: John
K. Thornton.
During an interview with the author, Paulinho, a his-
torian of local oral traditions, recounted the "three
stones" story of Kongo's origin in Ethiopia.
Bottom: 7. Postcard representing ivory traders, late
19th century? Arquivo Hist6rico Nacional, Luanda.
Regional clans, which were in many respects
trading associations connected with long-dis-
tance trade, rose to power in the late 19th cen-
tury. The Lunda migration stories seem to have
infiltrated the origin traditions of states that trad-
ed with the Lunda empire.
spring
This content downloaded from 143.106.200.120 on Thu, 07 Jun 2018 22:24:40 UTC
to relieve the dispute, nor did a Zambian
government commission in 1971. Mose
Kaputungu Sangambo, a local historian
who had been a delegate of the Luvale to
Lunda in 1956, revisited the Lunda capi-
tal in 1973, and subsequently composed
a detailed book on Luvale history; two
American scholars, the historian Robert
Papstein and the anthropologist Art Han-
sen, published it for him in the United
States in 1979.24 In this book, Sangambo
traces the ultimate origin of the Luvale to
Tanganyika, through Lunda, where mar-
riages connected them to the empire, and
then finally to their locations in Zambia.
Along the way, Chavuma managed to be-
come Luvale territory (Sangambo 1979:1-13).
in When Papstein returned to Zambia to
conduct fieldwork in 1980, he found his
research was spoiled by the bitter dispute
his unintended support for the Luvale
position had generated.25
Thus, just as Kongos in Angola see the
ever more elaborate history of their ori-
gins as reinforcing their position against a
government dominated by "Kimbundus"
who speak no African language and are
claims to support their own rule in the suspicious of history, so the Luvales look
region. These changes were not in Lunda to an ever more elaborate origin myth to
itself, where the tradition remained sta- support their land claims in their home
ble, but in areas that were marginally con- area. Politics, much more than aesthetics,
nected to it. The Luvale, living south of mythology, or even history, continue to
the Lunda in the British colony of North- determine the myths of the origins of cen-
ern Rhodesia, used Lunda traditions of tral African states.
migration to demand that the colonial Traditions of origin provide fascinat-
government separate them from the Lozi ing insights into the political philosophy
Kingdom, a demand which the British of the people who tell them, but they have
government granted in 1941. When both not proven to be as helpful for reconstruct-
they and the nearby Southern Lunda ing the earliest history of African polities.
Their sensitivity to political necessity and
wished to claim the intervening fertile dis-
trict of Chavuma, representatives of Luvaletheir changes, which we can document
and Southern Lunda in 1956 went to Lun- in central Africa, nevertheless make them
da to seek a resolution from Lunda tradi- valuable political documents and help to
tionalists. The Lunda ruler, unwilling to unravel the identity of their tellers, and
clarify the situation, sent his daughter the polities or interests they represent. M
Lweji to rule Chavuma. This action failed Notes, page 93
I AI
iAxft. ;
Ai~
4_A4
COURTESY OF ARQUIVO HIST6RICO NACIONAL
2004 - african arts 37
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
ty, and their direct connections to notions of
writing. The reed refers to the pen of Bamba
and to the pen with which Allah wrote the
Koran. The compound is also designed with a
series of geometric patterns which approxi-
mate text and the act of reading, and thus
devotion. A fascinating analysis which draws
comparisons with other Muslim architecture
throughout west Africa, the case study per-
haps suggests only the tip of the iceberg for
studies of built space and devotion among
the Mourides. While clearly this is a unique
compound, the Robertses allude several times
to the growth of the holy city of Touba, which
houses the great mosque and tomb of Bamba
and acts as the spiritual center of Mourid-
ism. Yet nothing beyond the architecture of
the grand mosque and tombs is discussed.
Is there a vernacular architecture or way of
arranging space, particularly in the holy
city, which has been developed or erected
by devotees?
This tour de force of Mouride scholar-
ship concludes with a short chapter entitled
"Pilgrimage and Exile, Transcendence and
Prosperity," which concerns the inherent
notes
TATTERSALL: References cited, from page 25
[This article was accepted for publication in January 2004.]
This contribution, which draws on ideas also presented in
Tattersall (2004), was initially prepared for the symposium 13. The tone of this chapter is more scientific than mythical, and
"Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture," organized at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Alisa LaGamma and held
there on March 7, 2003, in conjunction with the exhibition of the
same name. I thank Dr. LaGamma most warmly for inviting me
to participate in this illuminating event, as I do those colleagues
who kindly allowed me to use their illustrations here.
References cited
LaGamma, A. 2002. Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture.
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Marshack, A. 1985. Hierarchical Evolution of the Human Capacity.
New York: American Museum of Natural History.
McBrearty, S., and A. Brooks. 2000. "The Revolution That Wasn't
A Reinterpretation of the Origin of Modern Human Behavior,"
Journal of Human Evolution 39:453-563.
Tattersall, I. 1998. The Origin of the Human Capacity. New York:
American Museum of Natural History.
Tattersall, I. 2001. "How We Came to Be Human," Scientific Ameri-
can 285:56-63.
Tattersall I. 2004. "What Happened in the Origin of Human Con-
sciousness?," Anat. Rec. (New Anat.) 267B:19-26.
White, R. 1986. Dark Caves, Bright Visions: Life in Ice Age Europe.
New York: American Museum of Natural History/W.W.
Norton & Co.
Father Roosen and Hein Vanhee for scanning the original text.
10. See also Boka 1910:1-2 on the nine clans. Much of the his-
tory provided in the manuscript concerns Kionzo, Boka's
home region. These statements of history are only for context.
11. "Mambu ma kinzu kia Kongo," Kukiele (1928); a French
translation along with commentary that established the tradi-
tion as critical to Kongo's early history appeared in Cuvelier
1930:469-87 and 1931:193-208.
12. The name Bakongo, while certainly grammatically possi-
ble, may well have been a neologism of the time, replacing
either a variety of more local identities or Esikongo, a term
which roughly translates as "citizen of the kingdom of Kongo."
relates to the drying of the Sahara and the Bantu migrations as
they were understood in those days. On the other hand, de
Munck dclearly did incorporate early traditions about the origi-
nal inhabitants.
14. De Munck never published the fruits of this labor, only
using it to inform Kinkulu and a few other short texts. His
documentation is now housed in the Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven, found in the archives, number 4.8.16.2.
15. He arrived at this conclusion by interpreting and, reinter-
preting proverbs and other tradtional materials reported by
Cuvelier, but especially the identity of Vungu and Mayombe
as the origin of Kongo dia Ntotela, the kingdom.
16. Muanda's work is published in many pamphlets, for exam-
ple the series Mayanda. Many are in Kikongo, others in French.
17. In 1998-99 Ferraz Alberto sent me a parcel of mimeo-
graphed materials on Kongo history that represented a cross-
section of what his group believed was Kongo's origin in Egypt.
18. These migration accounts were published in a collective
work by Kimosi kia Bakongo called Nkadilu za Bakongo (Studio
One, Shutney, 1999), pp. IX-XII (which I did not see), as sum-
marized in Dissengomoka Sebastiao Alexandre (2000:23-30).
The division of time into "eras of the fish" (rendered as tandu
kia mbizi a maza) corresponds to the B.C./ A.D. division of time,
and seems to derive from the work of Muanda Nsemi.

movement involved in the Mouride Way. As a 19. Field interview, September 27, 2002, Kinzau village (15
kilometers from Mbanza Kongo). Paulinho spoke to us only
story of exile, Bamba's life is an exemplar forAPPIAH: Notes, from page 31 in Kikongo, but his language has frequent borrowings from
his devotees, who ground themselves not[This article was accepted for publication in January 2004.]1 French, suggesting that one or another of Muanda's writings
was his source.
only in his teachings but also in their belief in 1. Translation mine. "Une nation est une Ame, un principe spir- 20. The mythic part of the story was translated by Victor Turner
Touba as the home and focus of all their de- ituel. Deux choses qui, a vrai dire, n'en font qu'une, constituent as "A Lunda love story and its consequences: selected texts
cette ame, ce principe spirituel. Lune est dans le passe, I'autre from traditions collected by Henrique Dias de Carvalho at the
votional practices. Pilgrims flood Touba once court of the Muatianvua in 1887" (Turner 1955:1-26).
dans le present. L'une est la possession en commun d'un riche
a year for the "Grand Magal," as others do atlegs de souvenirs; I'autre est le consentement actuel, le desir de 21. Earliest traditions of Kasanje's origins were recorded about
Mecca. As a "state of mind," Touba can be vivre ensemble, la volontW de continuer a faire valoir l'h6ritage 1660 by Cavazzi, and are best revealed in his upublished first
qu'on a requ indivis." From "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?" (1882, manuscript (Cavazzi, ca. 1665).
transported to any corner of the earth. This chap. 3, par. 1), accessed at La Bibliothbque Electronique de Lisieux 22. The section that follows draws from and expands my orig-
chapter gives some details of the remarkable <http:/ /ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/biblisieux/ inal statements in Thornton 1981:1-14.
nationO4.htm>. 23. In 1885 Xa Nganje, ruler of Songo, placed his own origin in
spread, success, and influence of Mouride 2. Translation mine. "L'oubli, et je dirai m~me l'erreur his- Lunda, but Viye's from his ancestors (Capello & Ivens 1998
communities throughout the world. What it torique, sont un facteur essentiel de la creation d'une nation, [18821, vol. 1: 148-49). Cavazzi, however, placed Songo's origins
et c'est ainsi que le progrbs des etudes historiques est souvent locally in the 1660s (ca. 1665, vol. A, book 1:15-24). Compare
does not do, unfortunately, is give much pour la nationalite un danger" (chap. 1, par. 7), accessed at La Magyar 1859:266-68 with Silva P6rto 1942:165-71 for the coex-
visual evidence of their presence within dias- Bibliothique Electronique de Lisieux <http://ourworld.com istence of the two traditions of origins of Viye in Songo and
puserve.com/homepages/bib-lisieux/nation04.htm>. Lunda in the mid-nineteenth century.
poras. The obvious question is whether the
3. Avishai Margalit, The Ethics of Memory (Cambridge, MA: 24. The editors' introduction gives the history of the various
Touba state of mind brings with it an adapta- Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 7. disputes and commissions.
tion and practice of visual piety in the same 4. Margalit, The Ethics of Memory, p. 7. 25. This is my personal recollection of Papstein's account of
his troubles given to a Faculty Seminar at the University of
way that it does at home. Beyond drawing at- Zambia in 1981.
tention to the signage of various businesses THORNTON: Notes, from page 37
References cited
named after the holy city, the authors do not [This article was accepted for publication in January 2004.1
Alexandre, Dissengomoka Sebastiio. 2000. Zayi, Nkadilu, Fu
give much evidence of a continuance of visu- 1. See also Cavazzi's manuscript "first draft" on Mbundu tra- ya Bakongo ye Mbuangana zau munza Yamvimba. Luanda.
al systems abroad. With large populations in ditional history (Cavazzi ca. 1665), presently in the posses- Bal, Willy. 1960. Le royaume de Congo & les congtries environnantes
sion of the Araldi family of Modena. (1591). Brussels. Rev. ed. updated by Michel Chandeigne with
New York and Los Angeles, it would have 2. See, for example, the methodology statements in General John Thornton, Paris, 2002.
been worthwhile bringing these concerns History of Africa, 1981, vol. 1. Bastian, Adolph. 1973. Ein Besuch in San Salvador der Hauptstadt
into the fold. 3. Dias de Carvalho (1890:521-75) includes such a chronicle of des Kdnigriechs Congo. Modern reprint, New York. 1st. ed.
the Lunda Empire. Bremen, 1859.
A Saint in the City is an impressive work of 4. I have dealt in greater detail elsewhere with the evolution Batsikama ba Mampuya ma Ndwla, Rafael. 1971. Voici les Jagas

visual anthropology, extremely thought-provok- of origin tradition and tradition in general in Kongo (see
ou L histoire d'un peuple parricide bien malgr6 lui. Kinshasa.
Thornton 2000a:439-57; Thornton 2001). Bentley, William Holman. 1887. Dictionary and Grammar of the
ing and certainly visually stimulating. It builds 5. Instructions to Duarte Lopes, January 15, 1583, in Brisio Kongo Language at San Salvador, the Ancient Capital of the Old
1952-88, vol. 3: 234-35. Kongo Empire. London.
upon earlier work on Islam in Africa by Rend
6. Originally published in Rome, 1591. A facsimile edition was Boka, Petelo. 1910. "Nsosani a kingudi; Luzailu lua makanda,
Bravmann, Labelle Prussin, and others, but published by Rosa Capeans (1949) along with a Portuguese ye zimvila zazonsono, e zi zitangu nuanga mu nsi zonso."
curiously, as it attempts to create a distinctive translation (Lisbon, 1951). See also the modernized Italian edi- Manuscript.
tion (Cardona 1978) and the English translation by Margarite Bontinck, Francois, and J. Castro Segovia (eds., trans.). 1972. His-
niche for itself within the literature on Senegal,
Hutchinson (1881). Willy Bal's densely annotated French toire du royaume du Congo (1624). Brussels.
it seems to all but ignore the broader socioeco- translation (1960; 2002 rev. ed. updated by Michel Chandeigne Brisio, Ant6nio (ed.). 1952-88. Monumenta missionaria africana.
with John Thornton) is the best scholarly edition. 2nd series, 15 vols. Lisbon.
nomic, political, and historical conditions that
7. These seventeenth-century texts are Brisio 1969 [ca. 16241 Braisio, Ant6nio (ed.). 1969. Histdria do reino de Congo, c. 1624.
this other, largely anthropological and political (cap. 13, fol. 14); the French translation by Bontinck & Segovia Lisbon.

science research addresses. While Mourides
are surely the most influential brotherhood in
Senegal, they are not the largest (the Tijannis
are), nor do they simply dominate the visual
1972 [1624], also published in Etudes d'histoire africaine, no. 4 Capdans, Rosa. 1949. Relaqdo do reino de Congo e das terras cir-
(Lubumbashi, 1972), which marks the pagination of the origi- cunvizinhas por Duarte Lopez & Filippo Pigafetta. Lisbon.
nal manuscript and establishes the author as Mateus Cardoso; Capello, Hermangildo, and Roberto Ivens. 1998. De Benguela
as terras de laca. 2 vols. Lisbon. 1st ed. 1882.
Cavazzi 1687, book 2, pars. 86-89. On Cavazzi's likely source,
see Thornton 1979: 253-64. Cardona, Giorgio Raimondo. 1978. Relazione del reame di Congo.
8. The text, entitled "Memoria de como veio a nossa christian- Milan.

landscape; more importantly, they also control
huge amounts of the economy, informal and
formal. While the Robertses mention the other
brotherhoods (Qadiriyya and Layen included),
there is little sense of how the Mouride Way
relates to them.
idade de Portugal...," was stored in Kongo's archives and was
copied from an "old and deteriorated" (and probably original)
version by Francisco das Necessidades in 1844. It was subse-
quently published, in 1858, in "Factos memoraveis," Boletim
Oficial da Provincia de Angola, nos. 642, 643.
9. The 1910 manuscript, formerly housed in the Redemptorist
archives of the Katholieke Universiteit Te Leuven (Belgium), is
U presently in the possession of Jos Roosen. My thanks go to
Cavazzi, Giovanni Antonio, da Montecuccolo. Ca. 1665. "Mis-
sione evangelica al regno de Congo." MS A, Book 1. Micro-
film copies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UCLA,
and the University of Virginia.
Cavazzi, Giovanni Antonio, da Montecuccolo. 1687. Istorica
descrizione de tre regni Congo, Angola, ed Matamba. Bologna.
Correia, Joio Nepomuceno. 1797. "Noticia Geral dos costumes
da provincia de Behe, em Benguela, 1797," fol. 2. Instituto

spring 2004 - alrican arts 93

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All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
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Thornton, John K. 1983. The Kingdom of Kongo: Civil War and Minotaure 2:52-56. Paris: Editions A. Skira.
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Schildkrout, Enid, and Curtis A. Keim. 1990. African Reflections:
Thornton, John K. 1998. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona 1. My contact with the Dogon is based on four short trips over Art from Northeastern Zaire. New York: American Museum
Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706. a ten-year period (1992-2002), two of which involved visits to
of Natural History; Seattle and London: University of Wash-
Cambridge. Tireli. On all these occasions, I worked as a lecturer for the ington Press.
Thornton, John K. 2000a. "Documentos escritos e tradigqo oral American Museum of Natural History's Discovery Tour pro- Willats, John. 2003. "Child Art," The Grove Dictionary of Art On-
num reino alfabetizado: Tradi?6es orais escritas no Congo, gram, paying as close attention as I could to the interaction line. Oxford University Press. http:/ /80-www.groveart.com
1580-1910," Actas do II Reunido da histdria da Africa. Lisbon. between tourists and local people, especially children. My .osiyou.cc.columbia.edu:2048. Accessed December 22, 2003.
1st pub. Luanda, 1997. thanks go to Polly Richards and Susan Vogel for reading drafts
Thornton, John K. 2000b. "Kongo's Incorporation into Angola: of this paper, and to Simon Ottenberg, Alisa LaGamma, and
A Perspective from Kongo," A Africa e a instalagdo da sistema David Binkley for comments on a version presented at the 2003 BENITEZ-JOHANNOT: Notes, from page 81
colonial (c. 1885-1930). Actas III Reuniido internacional da African Studies Association meeting. A larger version of this
hist6ria da Africa. Lisbon. paper, comparing children's art in Senegal, Mali, and Nigeria, This exhibition preview is based on my introduction in the
Thornton, John K. 2001. "The Origins and Early History of the was presented in 2002 at the Rutgers University Center for accompanying catalogue. I am indebted to James Rush and
Kingdom of Kongo, c 1350-1550," International Journal of Children and Childhood Studies Regional Seminar Series. Asuncion Benitez-Rush, whose fine editorial changes consider-
African Historical Studies 34. 2. Jean Rouch, sadly, was killed in a car accident in Niger on ably transformed that piece. I am particularly grateful to Jean
Toso, Carlo (ed.). 1999. Una pagina poco nota di storia Congolese. February 20, 2004. Paul Barbier-Mueller, who challenged me to take on this project
Rome.
3. Curtis Keim and I developed this theme in our study of early- and made it possible, over the last three years, for me to conduct
Turner, Victor. 1955. "A Lunda love story and its consequences: twentieth-century Mangbetu art (Schildkrout & Keim 1990); it research in the storerooms and libraries of many institutions in
Selected texts from traditions collected by Henrique Dias de is discussed in regard to tourism among the Dogon by Walter E. Europe and the United States. He also insisted that I take two
Carvalho at the court of the Muatianvua in 1887," Rhodes- A. van Beek (2003). trips to Africa to allow me brief but important field contacts. I
Livingstone Journal 19:1-26. 4. Van Beek mentions such drawings in Dogon (Hollyman & thank Anne Dresskell for her professional editing of the text.
Vansina, Jan. 1961. De la tradition orale: Essai de mithode his- Van Beek 2000) and in an unpublished paper on children's mas- 1. Publications on the general subject of seats and seating tra-
torique. Tervuren. querades. Polly Richards has also worked with these drawings, ditions include, among others, Brachear & Elbers 1977; Dagan
Wing, Joseph van. 1920. Etudes bakongo. Brussels. and actually arranged a drawing competition among children 1985; Signs and Seats of Power 1986; Bocola 1995; Vendryes
(Richards 2003). At the time of this writing I have not read her 1999. Among these, Vendryes's introduction offered the most
thesis, but I have had the opportunity to correspond with her. insightful and useful overview.
BLIER: References cited, from page 45 See also Richards 2000. 2. Interview by Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller with the son of Arthur
5. Imperato's description of theatrical performances in 1971 coin- Speyer, an eminent German collector (May 7,1985, Wiesbaden).
[This article was accepted for publication in January 2004.]
cides closely with what I observed in the 1990s, and Imperato,The son (also named Arthur Speyer) explains that his father
1. "The disk of sun that they draw is attached to a rope. When in turn, comments on the similarity to what Griaule observed purchased King Njoya's stool (Fig. 28) in 1928 from Hermann
the sun wishes to come out in the east, it is Liyelo the west- about secular performances in the 1930s (Imperato 1971:72). Glauning, brother of Captain Hans Glauning. Archives Barbier-
seated brother who pulls it a bit at a time, so that the sun will 6. The article "Peintres rupestres de Songo" in the special issue of Mueller. See also Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller's article on this
move towards him. When the sun arrives on his side, he Minotaure dedicated to the Mission Dakar-Djibouti (Rivet & interview in Tribune des Arts (Geneva), May 7, 1986.
plays his flute, and Liyeyani, hearing it, begins to pull the sun Rivibre ca. 1933) is signed "A.S." I have inferred that this signifies3. Sandro Bocola edited African Seats (1995), an exhibition cata-
back toward the east. It is at this time that there is night" (Blier Andri Schaeffner, who wrote another article in that same issue. logue that included a large number of pieces from the Barbier-
1994:50). 7. According to both Richards (2000) and Van Beek (2003), the Mueller Museum and the Mus6e Royal de l'Afrique Centrale
Dogon concept of tradition is a way of explaining everything in Tervuren. The cover featured the Barbier-Mueller's beaded
References cited
in the present by virtue of the past. stool from Sultan Njoya. Although the essays are highly infor-
van Beek, Walter E. A. 1991. "Dogon Restudied: A Field Evalua- 8. Van Beek (n.d.) also describes a funeral for a cat that he wit- mative and insightful, the book provides little information on
tion of the Work of Marcel Griaule," Current Anthropology nessed in the 1990s. individual seats and seat traditions.
32:139-58, 163-67. 9. I acquired three such books for the American Museum of 4. King Njoya's beaded stool appears in Bocola 1995:179, fig. 75;
van Beek, Walter E. A. 2001. Dogon: Africa's People of the Cliffs. Natural History, one of which was a post-trip gift from a Falgayrettes 1993; Harter 1986: pl. 14; Meyer 1991:70; Newton &
New York: Harry N. Abrams. tourist. All the drawings in these notebooks can be viewed at Waterfield 1995:137; Perrois 1994:23; and Schmalenbach 1988:289.
Blier, Suzanne Preston. 1994. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontol- http:/ / anthro.amnh.org. 5. Susan Vogel writes that for many African cultures, beauty is
ogy and Metaphor in Batammaliba Architectural Expression. Chi- 10. While Van Beek says the cycle is done every twelve years, recognized in the artists' concerns with restraint, balance, and
cago: Chicago University Press. Orig. pub. 1987. others say that the full dama occurs at more frequent intervals proportion, much as it is in the West (1986:X-XII).
Blier, Suzanne Preston. 1998. The Royal Arts ofAfrica: The Majesty (Imperato 1971; Polly Richards, personal communication, De-
of Form. New York: Harry N. Abrams. cember 21, 2003). Apparently it occurs at different times in References cited
Blier, Suzanne Preston. 2003. Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West different villages. Benitez-Johannot, Purissima. 2001. "Art, Artifact, or Polemic?
Africa, text. Photographs by James Morris. New York: Prince- 11. Richards points out that Griaule did not discuss these Entangled Objects on Display," Arts & Cultures 2:25-30.

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