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Creativity in the Congo Free State: Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Funerary Mats

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Creativity in the Congo Free State: Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Funerary Mats Creativity in the Congo Free State: Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Funerary Mats Carlee S. Forbes Mention of the Congo at the turn of the twentieth century This study focuses on the funerary practices of the often brings forward thoughts of oppression and desolation. Kongo people. This is not to be confused with the modern From 1885-1908, Belgian King Léopold II had exclusive states the Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) control over this vast area in Central Africa. The area, located or the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).1 Instead, this around the Congo River, is rich in rubber and ivory. Léo- paper discusses Kongo with a “K,” a reference to speakers pold II took great advantage of these resources. He granted of the Kikongo language, who live in both the Democratic concessions to different companies, essentially giving them Republic of Congo and in Northern Angola. Their practices the right to act as they wished and to extract whatever they and location correspond with the historic Kingdom of Kongo desired. Léopold II and the companies placed harsh demands that flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. upon the indigenous Congolese people to collect resources. If quotas were not met, the people would be severely pun- The Finest Velvet ished (Figure 1). It is through this lens that most stories of Raffia products have a long history within the Kongo the Congo at the turn of the century are set. Congo is seen Kingdom. Both the material and the designs of raffia textiles stripped of her natural resources, her people are broken, have long-standing significance and meaning for the Kongo. and the colonial powers are in complete control. However, Fine textiles served as indicators of prestige, wealth, and this paper examines a case in which the Congo people were spirituality. Understanding the historic uses of raffia estab- not completely browbeaten or defeated. lishes the base from which it is possible to understand the One demonstration of the people’s agency is the deliber- importance of the twentieth-century funerary mats. ate adaptation and transformation of their artistic practices The Kingdom of the Kongo is well known for its pro- to fit changing situations. Kongo funerary practices morphed duction of raffia textiles. European visitors continually com- and changed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth mented on them. In 1508, Duarte Pacheo Pereira, one of centuries. Raffia mats, one of the many materials used in the early explorers to Kongo, states funerals, may be used as a case study demonstrating the …in this kingdom of the Kongo they pro- changing funerary art, funerary practices, and the role of duce cloths from palm fibers with velvet the artist in the Lower Congo region around the turn of the like decoration, of such beauty that better century. The Kongo people have a long history of producing ones are not made in Italy. In no other part raffia materials. Examining finely made and decorated raffia of Guinea is there a country where they textiles produced during the height of the Kongo Kingdom are able to weave these clothes as in this in the seventeenth century creates a context through which Kingdom of Kongo.2 it is possible to interpret the twentieth-century raffia mats. Such historic textiles were made from exceptionally fine By questioning how the mats were used in funerals and raffia threads. Raffia fibers are extracted from palm leaves. their meaning in Kongo society, the mats become a platform Palm leaves are harvested just before the new leaves unfurl. through which it is possible to better understand the turbulent The midrib is then removed, separating the leaves into indi- period of the Congo Free State. vidual units. The skin of the leaf is removed to reveal the fiber I am grateful to my advisor Dr. Victoria Rovine for her continued guid- 1 In terms of spelling, Kongo equates to the cultural group, kingdom, ance, constructive critiques, and support through the project. I also and language, whereas Congo indicates geographical location, the thank Susan Cooksey, Robin Poynor, and Hein Vanhee, curators of river, and the modern country. The region just north of the lower the Kongo across the Waters exhibition co-organized by the Samuel Congo was not part of the kingdom, but the people are nonetheless P. Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida, and the Royal Museum Kongo. This will be further complicated by quotations from historical for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. Research for that exhibition texts that do not necessarily follow this pattern. sparked this project, and finally, many thanks to my art history peers at the University of Florida for their academic, moral, and personal 2 Translated and quoted from Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ support. Orbis 1505-1508 in Ezio Bassani, African Art and Artefacts in European Collections 1400-1800 (London: British Museum Press, 2000), 279. ATHANOR XXXII CARLEE S. FORBES within. That fiber is then dried and is ready for use.3 Due to the difficulty of this quality identification: the limitations of the leaf’s size, each fiber is, at maximum, There are four kinds of cloths. The best and two meters long.4 These threads were then woven into plain most refined has figures…it takes fifteen or cloth using an upright loom. sixteen days to make one. Only the king, The woven designs of the early objects were created in and those whom he gives permission, may two ways, and a single textile could include examples of both wear the cloth. The second type is not techniques. The first method, embroidery, involved sewing as refined as the first, but the two types the design into the woven cloth. This embroidery was done greatly resemble one another, and unless in such a way that the design is only visible on the front. one is an expert, one may be fooled at first Embroidery created a raised surface and allowed for extra sight since the second type also contains embellishments that were difficult to obtain through the figures. You must examine the back to see process of weaving. The second method is “piling.” In this the difference.13 process, extra palm fibers were added to the weft in loops The production itself can be used to affirm the prestige or rings. These loops would later be cut—leaving the trace of the wearer as one who has the favor of the king, one of small tufts.5 When rubbed back and forth, piling creates who can afford to acquire the materials, and one who can the velvet-like texture mentioned in the travelers’ accounts. commission the weaver. With this labor-intensive process, it would take fifteen to In addition to the decorated cloths being used as clothing eighteen days to create a textile that is about 20 x 20 inches and markers of status, undecorated cloths were used as cur- (50 x 50 cm) (Figure 2).6 rency. The cloths were thin, but tightly woven. They could be In the Kongo Kingdom, the finest textiles were reserved single units, or sewn into “books” by attaching several cloths for nobles with high status. Only the Kongo king and the in the corner.14 It is of note, that this was not necessarily a members of the court whom he appointed were permitted currency in the full sense of the term since it is unlikely that to wear or display the finest quality textiles.7 One impor- raffia was used in the buying and selling of goods.15 However, tant form of the decorated cloths is the mpu cap worn by there is evidence that the cloth could be collected as a tribute kings and chiefs (Figure 3).8 A report from the 1491 visit of tax.16 Other important events also included the exchange of Portuguese emissaries indicates that textiles were also hung raffia textiles in a marriage agreement, or as a sign of friend- on the wall, much like the tapestries that were displayed in ship.17 Thus, raffia may not necessarily be used as currency Europe at that time.9 In addition, these textiles were traded in everyday transactions, but its exchange signaled ideas of and presented to foreign dignitaries as objects of prestige.10 prestige, status, or respect. The hierarchy of textiles and the regulations surrounding Not only were these earliest textiles important signs of them were so important that if a person was found selling status, but their function and designs perhaps also reflected a high-grade textile without the king’s permission, he or Kongo beliefs. In Kongo thought, the realm of the living is she could be executed.11 The Kongo people knew well and integrally connected with the world of the dead. Chiefs, understood the differences between the different grades of diviners, and banganga, or ritual specialists, were important textiles.12 As an outsider, Olfert Dapper described in 1686 connectors between the world of the living and the spiritual 3 Émile Jean Baptiste Coart, Vannerie et tissage (Bruxelles: Renaissance 9 Mario Pereira, African Art at the Portuguese Court (PhD diss, Brown d’Occident, 1926), 11-14; and Jan Vansina, “Raffia Cloth in West University, 2010), 149. Central Africa, 1500-1800,” in An Expanding World, ed. Maureen Fennell Mazzaoui, vol. 12 of Textiles: Production, Trade, and Demand 10 Pereira, African Art, 150. (Aldershot: Variorum, 1998), 266-267. 11 Phyllis M. Martin, “Power Cloth and Currency on the Loango Coast,” 4 Joseph Maes, Vannerie au Lac Leopold II (Bruxelles: Commission pour African Economic History 15 (1986), 2. la protection des arts et métiers indigènes, 1936), 3-4. 12 Phyllis M.
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