Important late 16th – early 17th century Kingdom of Kongo staff or baton finial, depicting a high rank male figure, probably a chieftain, dressed in prestigious mid-16th century European attire. Skilfully carved in ivory and highlighted by light reddish patination, this small sculpture conveys a strong formality and expressive intensity.The figure’s face, of characteristic Kongolese features, is defined by its triangular shape and mask like appearance. Prominent striated eyebrows define a semicircle that extends to form a circumference, completed by exuberant eye bags, which enclose and enhance converging almond shaped eyes of exaggerated lead pupils. The “heart shaped nostrils” show some evidence of wear and tear, while the mouth, ajar and with prominent scabbard-top lips, reveals semi-closed but pronounced regular teeth, in a manner that exudes highly charged energy.Stoutly build, the figure seats joint legged on a block, or wooden case, with its head resting on the raised right hand that simultaneously hides the ear, in a gesture of marked symbolic strength. The left arm, held close to the body, bends high over the shoulder. It wears “coura”, a type of leather made military waistcoat fashionable in mid-16th century Europe. This type of attire is characterised by its frontal slashed openings, high collar, creased neck and tails that hide the top (muslos) of the tight trousers . On the head a wide brim hat (sombreiro).This small sculpture corresponds to the top section of a leadership staff or baton (mvwala), a power and dignity insignia belonging to a chieftain or ruler in the ancient Kingdom of Kongo . Instrument for the perpetuating of memories passing from one generation to the next, it served as tool for communicating with subjects and for mediating between the world of the living and the afterlife. Through the staff, the leader seeks inspiration from the ancestors, the revealing of solutions to problems and advice for important negotiations. When set into the ground the mvwala symbolizes the world axis and expands the sense of authority and energy of the rulers’ who, similarly to religious leaders , had power over the living and over the ancestors.Figurative finials such as the present one have been recorded in wood, iron or ivory, the latter being the rarest and most desirable. The reduced number of extant ivory examples is undoubtedly related to the fact that this material, of important symbolic meaning, was of exclusive use of religious, political, economic and social elites, and hence forbidden to the majority of Kongolese . Manufactured separately from the staffs’, finials were later fitted to their top.The symbolic value of this sculpture is linked to concepts of leadership authority, as ritual attribute charged with mystic beliefs, aspirations and moral purposes, amongst which the desire to assist, protect and heal.The gestures, or body language, omnipresent in Congolese sculpture, are central to a representative system whose decoding reveals the allegoric sequence of each component. Chieftains were generally depicted seated (sendama), a sign of high social standing. The seat itself can assume the shape of a stool or a box (Kinkulu), such as the one present in this piece, a posture that forces the leader to bow to his kingdom and his power , invoking ancestral protection, as if “he sat on the past to build the future” . For the Bakongo people , death is exclusively physical, a mere transition between the living community and that of the dead.In the Ancient Kongo’s culture the head is sacred as it rises towards the divine, the forehead representing the soul and the eyes farsightedness . In this sculpture, the lead pupils that fully cover the eyes give it a large field of vision, allowing for a global perception of both the real and the spiritual world.The unusual position of the figure’s right arm, raised with the hand close to the ear, can possibly allude to the Congolese adage mvumbi ofwa kya meso, ka fa fwa kya matu ko (the person dies of vision but not of audition). It therefore constitutes a transmission vehicle for “messages” to the ancestors which, in turn, respond to the request through visions during sleep. Another adage, kuto kumosi kuwidi matu ye matu makamba (literally: “a ewe heard, let the other ewes spread the information amongst themselves”) confirms this concept, meaning:”can the listener that is present be the mouthpiece for the absent” . The left arm, flexed close to the body and bent over the shoulder, suggests another illusory gesture, although Marc Leo Félix suggests that it might depict a shot gun’s stock or grip .The fact that the figure is attired in mid-16th century European fashion, is of paramount importance for its dating. In the Kingdom of Kongo, Portuguese costume was swiftly adopted as insignia of power. Marc Leo Félix, on analysing a vast inventory of extant sculptures , which includes the piece herewith described, concludes that European fashion would not have taken more than 20 years to get to Kongo, from the date of its introduction in Europe, a fact that illustrates the local elites’ taste for the latest European fashions . According to this author, the precise dating of Kongolese sculpture can only the reached by the thorough study of History of Fashion manuals.The Portuguese were responsible for this cultural syncretism. Their 1582 arrival to the Kingdom of Kongo was the starting point for a period of long and fruitful exchange between the two nations. Certainly conducive to such a success was, on the one side the African monarch’s and his people’s conversion to Christianity – Catholicism becoming the countries official religion , and on the other the fascination with the Portuguese monarchy, that led to the official adoption of Portuguese protocol including the use of the language, nobility titles, ceremonies and practices. The Lusitanian fatherland became a reference, being seen as a sister country, reason why the Portuguese Crown conferred it a privileged treatment. Up until the mid-17th century Kongolese power was sustained by Portuguese military aid, technologically more efficient, that granted the Manicongo – the King – superiority over his subordinates and neighbouring enemies while simultaneously ensuring the reinforcement of a centralised administration .In its depiction of a Kongolese ruler dressed in European attire fashionable in the mid-1500s, the iconography of this small sculpture illustrates clear concepts linked to the authority of its original owner, while simultaneously dating it to the later part of that century or the early part of the next. This important staff, or baton finial, published in Mark Félix book , embodies a glorious historic period of the Kingdom of Kongo in which the Portuguese actively partook.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
•https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cultur/tervuren/terb01de.html (consulted 16/9/2020)•Austin, Ramona, “Haut de canne mvwala” in Gustaaf Verswifer et al. Trésors d’Afrique, Musée de Tervuren, 1995.•Afonso Teca, Concepção e Representação Social da Morte no Grupo Étnico Kongo, Dissertação de Doutoramento apresentada à Universidade Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, 2015.•Emanuel Kunzika, Dicionário de Provérbios Kikongo, Luanda, Editorial Nzila, 2008.•Hugo Miguel Crespo, “Trajar as Aparências, Vestir para Ser: o Testemunho da pragmática de 1609” in Gonçalo de Vasconcelos e Sousa (coord.) O Luxo na Região do Porto ao tempo de Filipe II de Portugal (1610), Porto, U. Católica Editora, pp. 93 – 148.•John Thorton, “The development of un african church in the Kingdom of the Kongo, 1491 – 1750” in Journal of African History, 25, nº 2, Cambridge, Via Tropicalia, 1984.•Marc Leo Félix, White Gold, Black Hands – Ivory Sculptures in the Congo, V. 2, 2011.•Marina de Mello e Sousa, Reis Negros do Brasil Escravista – História da Festa de Coroação do Rei Congo, Belo Horizonte, Editora UFMJ, 2006.•Marta Sánchez Orense, “Particularidades del léxico de la moda renascentista: dificuldades en su análisis”, Cuadernos del Instituto História de la Lengua, 1, 2008, pp. 65-74.•Marta Sánchez Orense, Estudio del léxico de la industria textil y de la industria textil y de la sastrería en la época renacentista: estructura, contenido y resultados, Trabalho de Grado, Universidad de Salamanca, 2007. •Musée Dapper, Le Geste Kôngo (cat.), Paris, Editions Dapper, 2002.•The world of Tribal Arts / Winter - 2001/ Spring 2002. •Raphael Bluteau, Vocabulario portuguez e latino (…), 10 volumes, Coimbra, Lisboa: Real Collegio das Artes da Companhia de Jesus – Oficina de Pascoal da Sylva – Patriarcal Oficina de Musica 1712 – 1728.