EEuur rooppeeaann aanndd CCh hr riisst tiiaann IInnf flluueennccee
On the other hand, the influence of European usages imported by
the Portuguese, Dutch, English, German, Belgian, and French
colonists and that of the Christian religion preached by Catholic
and Protestant missionaries have had more weight on these
populations, incompletely formed and remaining foreign to Islamic
enterprise, than they had to the north of the Bantu country. Thanks
to the great number of Europeans living permanently in southern
Africa and to the increasing penetration of the Boers and other
“Afrikaaners” into the interior of the country, the primitive civili-
sation of the Zulu, the Basuto, the Bechuana, the Matabele, and
the Hottentots has sometimes been profoundly modified, whilst at
the same time veritable populations of hybrids have been formed
in the Portuguese and Dutch colonies. Certain native kingdoms
have been strongly shaken by religious quarrels in consequence of
rivalries between Catholic and Protestant neophytes; thus, under
the reign of Mtessa, who was a Catholic, Uganda was bloody
with a religious war which continued under Muanga, successor of
Mtessa, and which did not come to an end until 1892 with the
conversion of Muanga to Protestantism. Here we have, assuredly,
something new among the Negroes of Africa, and it can be said
that, in a certain measure, the Europeanisation of an important
part of southern Africa and the development that has there been
given to Christianisation have brought results, certainly not
identical, but indeed comparable to those produced by the
Islamisation of a part of western and central Sudan.
Androgynous figure (Teke).
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Wood, earth, cowries, height: 84.5 cm.
Private collection.
Mainly found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Teke are farmers and
hunters that cohabit based on the bilateral matrilineal principle. Their belief system
is based around one god, Nziam, who has tutelary spirits, natural forces, as
henchmen and created an invisible world. These spirits receive prayers and
supplications through either religious or magical means. Presented as a collection
of various items, the intermediaries are often given a material presence, which is
either invested with magical powers or assumed to contain a natural spirit or that
of a deceased. These objects are preserved in a container which is attached to a
sculpture which represents the dead ancestor.
Here, the statue is almost definitely an ancestor, though the reason that it is
androgynous would be an interesting answer to know. The bent legs and erect
head exhibit a traditional pose; the eyes, made of glass beads, are close to the
nose, the brow bulges, and the wide mouth is slightly open to show the teeth.
There is a hole in the centre of the teeth which suggests there was a removable
piece which gave a physical presence to the ancestor’s words. A high ranking
office is implied based on the pattern on the forehead and tattooed cheeks.