African Art

TThhee MMaattaammaann

To the south of “the empire” of the Congo, along the ocean,
extends a State whose chief was called mataman and whose
capital was near the present city of Mossamedes. Its territory,
which stretched north as far as Benguella and south almost to
the bay of Swakopmund, was peopled by Bachimba, Herero,
Damara, and to the south, by Hottentots.

TThhee BBeecchhuuaannaa

All the countries which constitute today the Republic of South Africa
(Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, Transvaal) formed a
vast and also very homogeneous State, whose dominant
population, the Bechuana, exercised a sort of suzerainty over the
Basuto, the Zulu and other Bantu peoples closely related to the
Bechuana, as well as over the Hottentots and Bushmen of
Luderitzland and the Kalahari desert.^19

TThhee MMoonnoommoottaappaa

On the eastern coast, between the bay of Lourengo-Marques and
that of Sofala, reigned the famous monomotapa, a title signifying,
according to Avelot, “Lord of the Hippopotomi”, whose State,
founded before the 10thcentury, comprised as suzerain popula-
tions the Matebele and the Makalaka and as vassal populations
the Matonga and the Mashona. The Wazimba, a cannibalistic

and warlike people who lived to the west of Sofala, made

frequent incursions into this kingdom.

KKi illwwa a aanndd tthhee ZZaannzzi ibbaar r SSuul lttaannaat tees s

All the rest of the eastern coast, up to Cape Guardafui, was more

or less dependent upon the sultanates founded by Arabs of

Maskat and Persians from Shiraz and Bushire, with the

commercial concourse of Hindus from Bombay and Malabar. The

most powerful of these sultanates, which the others exalted at

least nominally, had its seat of government at Kilwa between

Cape Delgado and the island of Mafia. Founded around 980 by

Ali, son of Hassan, prince of Shiraz, it had as vassals the sultans

of Sofala, Angoshe, Mozambique, Zanzibar, Pemba, Mombaz

or Mombasa, Melinde or Malindi, Kismayu, and Magadoxo

(Benadir). In the course of time, the sultans of Sofala and of

Zanzibar freed themselves from the tutelage of the Sultan of Kilwa

and the sultan of Zanzibar became suzerain of the settlements

situated to the north of his island.

These diverse Arab and Persian sultans were not, properly

speaking, governors of States; their authority was exercised only

over Muslim colonies of Asiatic origin established around their re-

spective residences and over the natives living in the proximity of

these residences. Their principal occupation was to recruit slaves

whom the Negro chiefs, with whom they were in relations,

procured by means of raids and sold to them and which they, in

turn, sent off to the ports of the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf,

or else resold to the Portuguese slave traders. Slave-trading consti-

tuted almost the only commerce and the only excuse for the Muslim

settlements of East Africa and was the source of their prosperity. It

is not necessary to say that these affairs were purely material, that

they were profitable only to the sultans, their followers and clients,

and that such a situation, far from benefiting the mass of the native

population, contributed to maintain it in a state of poverty and

moral misery from which it has not, even now, completely

succeeded in emancipating itself.

All the Negro tribes scattered along the eastern coast were known

to the Portuguese under the name of Makua and to the Arabs

under that of Zendj, these two words being nearly synonymous

with slaves in the mouths of those who employ them. Of the

second word was formed the compound Zendjbar “country of

slaves” from which we have made Zanguebar and Zanzibar.^20

TThhee KKi innggddoomms s oof f tthhee IInnt teer riioor r

In the interior of the country, native States had been constituted

which were at least as powerful as those along the coast.

Ntadi funerary monument (Kongo), late 19thcentury.
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Soapstone, height: 42 cm.
The Trustees of the British Museum, London.

Most likely different from their indigenous term, ntadi(pl. mintadi) depict a
mother and child. Around 1825, sculptors began to produce painted figures of
striking quality to be purchased by the wealthy after Boma became the centre
of wealth. Since themintadiserved no religious purpose, they could be invented
in a variety of forms, even related to European origin. Ntadi, meaning
watchman, meant many of them were displayed on graves as witnesses for the
dead. While some mintadi portrayed aspects of chiefship, maternity was
another common theme to indicate the deceased was female. Around 1920,
production appears to have stopped, though various sites and styles were found
up until that time.