POWER, CLOTHAND CURRENCYON THE LOANGOCOAST
Phyllis
Indiana
M. Martin
University
of the Loango
Cloth was a basic
resource
for
the peoples
It
was used in
Coast'
their
throughout
precolonial
history.
it was essential
in
and for clothing;
life
for furnishings
daily
and burial
it was
landmark events
such as initiation
ceremonies;
and state
of
that
cemented
transactions
lineage
part
key
The importation
of
a currency.
and it served as
alliances;
the
cloth
from
sixteenth
century began a transition
European
on
to
a reliance
cloth
from indigenous,
produced
domestically
as a key
its
but cloth
maintained
cloth,
significance
foreign
to sources
of cloth
Access
of society.
resource
at all levels
with the
were closely
associated
and control
of its distribution
of
whether
administrators,
lineage
by royal
power,
wielding
or merchant-brokers.
elders,
religious
specialists
Raphia
Cloth
Production
western
of Central
Africa
reach their
The great rainforests
in the
of
hinterland
margins in the mountainous
Mayombe region
the Loango
This was also the inland limit
of the three
Coast.
dominated
the area - Ngoyo, Kakongo
kingdoms that historically
In these fringes
of the equatorial
and, the
largest,
Loango.
that a late sixteenthforest,
palm trees grew in such profusion
account
to the region as "the land of palms."2
referred
century
Of the
cloth
several
were
in
varieties,
many
important
The fibers
of
the "bamboo" or wine palm, rafia
production.
vinifera
or ntombe, were commonly used for the
most basic cloth
and for
and from the leaf fibers
of the fan palm,
currency;
or
cloths
of
nteva,
hyphaene
guineensis
particularly
high
were
The trees
woven.3
were both cultivated
and grew
quality
wild.
Andrew Battell,
who lived
on the
Coast
in the
Loango
first
decade
of the
wrote "of their
seventeenth
century,
palm
trees which they keep watering
and cutting
every year,
they make
and such like;
out
velvets,
satins,
taffetas,
damasks, sarsenets
of the leaves,
cleansed
and purged,
threads
and
drawing
long
that purpose."4
Samuel
Brun in
1612 indicated
the
even, for
care with which the
trees were
the Loango capital,
at
planted
that
like grape vines,"
while Pieter
writing
they "were planted
van de Broecke about
the same time described
wine palm trees
that
had been
around the royal court.5
Seventeenthplanted
sources
are silent
on who had rights
to
the
century
exploit
but sources
for related
trees,
Bakongo groups in the lower Zaire
indicate
that palm trees
to
the
families
of
region
belonged
those who had planted
them and were inheritable
others
property;
could request
the right
to use
the trees,
and rights
however,
2
would
PHYLLIS M. MARTIN
fall
into
abeyance
if
the
site
of
a
village
was
abandoned.6
The production of raphia cloth was in the hands of the men
and boys who planted
and tended the trees, cut the leaves,
extracted and prepared the fibers,
and wove the cloth on upright
looms.
cloths might also be woven without a loom.
Very simple
In the late eighteenth century, French missionaries
described a
that
"grass-cloth"
"they make on their knees without a shuttle
or loom ... as our basket-makers
do with their wattle."7
The
craft of weaving was widely known as a part-time occupation,
but
there were also specialists
who passed on their
skills
from
master to junior
member. Certain provinces of Loango
family
where palm trees grew abundantly
were known for their cloth
In mbanza Loango, the capital,
production.
royal weavers
authorized by
produced cloths for use by the ruler and by those
him.8
The size
of a woven piece
of cloth was limited by the
since they were not joined together.
lengths of the palm fibers,
The basic
of cloth
used for currency, a libongo (pl.
piece
mbongo), was about fourteen inches square and described as about
the size
of a large handkerchief.
These or larger pieces made
from the longest
and finest
fibers
were sewn together with
raphia or pineapple threads to form strips of equal length that
were joined together for a waist-cloth.
Several mbongo could be
or sixteen
produced in a day once the loom was set up; fifteen
cloths.
The
days were necessary to complete the finest royal
basic cloth
was a plain weave, but a variety of colors could be
achieved by exposing the fibers in the sun for different
periods
of time
or through coloring
them with
takula
(redwood),
Men were also famous for their
skills
in
charcoal, and chalk.9
making the high-status
caps worn by chiefs throughout the Loango
Coast and lower Zaire region.
"the
According to Andrew Battell,
men of this kingdom make a good store of palm cloth of sundry
sorts, very fine and curious.
They are never idle for they make
fine caps of need-lework as they go in the street."10
Uses of Raphia Cloth
The multiple
for
usage of cloth explains its significance
was a visible
reminder
Loango Coast societies.
Clothing itself
of a person's place
in society.
The display of prestige cloth
whose production involved considerable
investment of labor was
the "politics
of costume.""
In
part of what has been called
Loango only the ruler, or one to whom he had granted the favor,
could wear the most beautiful
cloths
and any attempt to sell
these without royal permission was punishable by execution.
The
also
his wealth by receiving visitors
Loango ruler
displayed
while seated in a chair which was placed on a large carpet made
from a "velvet" cloth
about thirty yards in circumference,
and
POWER, CLOTHAND CURRENCYON THE LOANGOCOAST
3
the
heads
of
when summoned to
a royal
important
lineages
audience
would
arrive
at
the royal
court preceded
by servants
who carried
a large cloth which would be spread out
as a carpet
for their master.12
Weavers in Ngoyo produced a cloth called
in
the Portuguese
sources
to
panos nsambes, which was also exported
the Sonyo province
of the Kongo kingdom on the south side of the
Zaire river.
The name suggests
that one of the
royal families
of
the
commissioned
the
Nsambo,
kingdom,
may have originally
cloth or controlled
its
distribution.
Another
less
cloth,
elaborate
but
with
a similar
also
had restricted
design,
circulation
since
could
afford
to
only the
wealthy
buy it or
have it
made.
Two other raphia cloths
with a plain weave were
worn by most of the population.13
Cloth was essential
in many of
the important
events
in an
individual's
life.
The newborn was laid on a piece of raphia
cloth;
wore raphia cloth
the
young people at initiation
skirts;
of
suitor
a young
carried
girl
palm wine and cloth as presents
for her family;
cloth was used to pay legal
fees.14
The elders
and the
the
wealthy could
manipulate
power through controlling
circulation
of raphia cloth and passing
it on to their juniors
and dependents
who lacked
cloth or the means to acquire
it.15
At the same time, higher and lower chiefs
in the administration
of the
their
kingdom celebrated
authority
through the exchange
of cloth on important
occasions.
there was
political
Thus,
at
the
installation
of the rulers
of
reciprocal
cloth-giving
and in
chiefs
and received
Ngoyo and Loango;
Kakongo,
gave
when they were appointed.16
prestige
goods,
cloth,
including
Those who could afford
to do so hoarded
baskets
of
cloth
in
their homes
as savings
for such extraordinary
and for
expenses
times of crisis.
It was reported
of
the Maloango
in 1612, for
that
at his
court there
were "houses
example,
full
of ivory,
and libongos."17
copper,
Cloth was important
in the clothing
of the
dead as
it was
for the
for
it announced a person's
rank on arrival
in
living,
the next world and made the
transition
easier.
The burial
of
cloth was the ultimate
for the value of labor
prestige
disregard
which dominated the lives
of villagers.18
Seventeenth-century
accounts
of burials
on the Loango coast describe
that
procedures
varied with the rank or wealth
of
the
individual
and of his
Distinctive
features
concerned
the number of mourners,
family.
the length of the mourning period,
the preparation
of the body
for burial,
the number or type of objects
buried with the body,
but dressing
the dead person well,
wrapping the
body in raphia
and putting
cloths
from family and friends
cloth,
in the grave
were common features
of the ritual.19
The Loango Coast raphia cloth had many of the attributes
of
a sound
Its general
and multiple
currency.
acceptability
usage
demand.
kept it in constant
be used
at once in
Mbongo could
local
markets
to buy foodstuffs
and other items for household
be made into
consumption;
they could
clothes,
wall-hangings,
4
PHYLLIS M. MARTIN
or they could be a store of
bags, and floor or bed coverings;
Some raphia cloth
value for future expense.
which was used as
for years
and was never used for
currency remained just that
another purpose.20
Raphia cloth was also reasonably durable and
Soldiers
in Angola who were paid in raphia cloth
portable.
imported from Loango by the Portuguese found that they could not
to buy food and slaves but that they could sew
only use it
the wind
pieces together and make tents which could withstand
and rain.21
Furthermore,
mbongo could be packaged into
different
units of account, for example by joining
the loose
ends of the fibers
together to form a "book" or by tying them
together in bundles.
Mbongo might be packaged together in units
of four,
ten, twenty,
forty, or a hundred. A unit of account
called a mukuta, which consisted of ten mbongo wrapped or sewn
together in a strip, was commonly found on the Loango Coast, in
the lower Zaire region and at Luanda.
So essential
was an
Coast
cloth
for
the
smooth
ofV
adequate
supply
Loango
raphia
that the Portuguese
issued a
running of the Angolan slave-trade
contract in Lisbon to an individual
to maintain
a factory at
of mbongo to Luanda.
He was granted a
Loango for the export
monopoly and the Angolan government further tried to control the
value and circulation
of the cloth currency by stamping the arms
of Portugal
once or twice on the imported raphia cloth, thus
creating new "denominations."22
what has been termed a "selfRaphia cloth was essentially
regulating"
currency, that is, a currency that will maintain its
value
through being in common usage even where no strong
In the case of the Loango
government can guarantee its worth.23
ruler in the early seventeenth
he may have
however,
century,
been able
to influence
supply and demand of the best quality
cloths through maintaining large reserves at the royal court and
who could make and use the highest quality
through controlling
cloths.
The Transition
to Imported Cloth,
c. 1650-1900
Decline
in the use of raphia cloth
started
in the
seventeenth
with the importation of cloth from Europe
century
and the Indies.
The same Portuguese ships
which sailed from
Angola to buy raphia cloth brought foreign cloth to the Loango
Coast.
The trickle
became a flood with the arrival
of Dutch
in raphia cloth and who exchanged
traders, who had no interest
for ivory,
and slaves.24
European and Indian cloth
copper,
These foreign
prestige goods were quickly adopted by the Loango
Coast notables.
In Loango, by the mid-seventeenth
century, the
administrators
were dressing in European cloth
king and his
while continuing to wear the distinctive
animal furs and jewelry
which were the more traditional
marks of their status.25
In the
smaller kingdoms of Kakongo and Ngoyo, however,
rulers were
POWER, CLOTHAND CURRENCYON THE LOANGOCOAST
5
from wearing imported cloth and continued to wear
prohibited
the nineteenth
For Kakongo an
century.
raphia cloths into
source commented:
eighteenth-century
the Kakongo people
do not know the origins of this
custom.
It is presumed that
the first
of
legislators
the nation
on their sovereigns
imposed this
regulation
to retard the progress of luxury items and to encourage
the people
by the example of their master to seek the
but in
remedy for their needs, not in foreign articles
their own industry.
But it has no effect since the law
only applies to the King, and people and Ministers alike
trade indiscriminately
in all
European merchandize
having
developed
tastes
for
the
European
goods....26
A few years later a French trader confirmed that most people now
dressed
in European cloth:
"their
pagne was previously of
but since
macoute, the word that means a cloth made from straw;
European trade has introduced
luxury goods, the waist cloth is
made of linen, cotton, silk, or even velvet...."27
By 1826, it
was reported
from Cabinda, the Ngoyo port, that only slaves and
those who lived in the interior
wore raphia cloth and that such
people were despised by coastal communities.28
the conspicuous
Although the use of raphia cloth declined,
with power persisted.
consumption of cloth and its association
By the late eighteenth
century, the central government in each
of the three kingdoms had been considerably
weakened through the
of a class
of merchant-brokers
who had access to
challenge
of
administrations
in
imported goods,
independently
royal
that prevented Kakongo
capital cities.
Indeed, the prohibition
and Ngoyo rulers from wearing imported fabrics was symbolic of
their growing weakness and isolation
in inland courts.
And even
in the case of Loango, interregnums became common as the center
of power passed from the office of ruler into the hands of his
who were also
brokers
in the slave
administrators,
great
trade.29
The association
of cloth and power is clearly shown in the
evolution of burial customs.
to
Raphia cloth had been intrinsic
such customs,
but its
use was not lavish in funerals of the
seventeenth century.
the burial
By the late eighteenth century
of the dead with large amounts of cloth was mandatory for those
who could afford it.
The account of the French trader,
Degrandpr6, who observed
funerals on the Loango Coast in 1786 and 1787, is particularly
At the death of a great
striking.
man, the family removed the
The preparation
body to a special house where it lay in state.
for the burial continued through the period of mourning, which
could take months or years.
Every day family members, friends,
and dependents
with them tributes of raphia
arrived, bringing
cloth in which the body was then wrapped.
Once the heir had
6
PHYLLIS M. MARTIN
decided that sufficient
cloth had been used, the outer wrapping
or "packing" with imported cloth could begin.
The more wealthy
the dead man, the more the wrapping added.
The mass might
become so great
that
the walls
of the hut would have to be
knocked down to allow the transfer
of the wrapped body to a
larger shelter.
described the mourning of a deceased
Degrandpr6 graphically
of mafuka, the
great man of Cabinda who held the position
official
at Cabinda Bay responsible
for oversight of foreign
trade.
The wrapping of the body had taken a year and the final
mass, ready for burial, was twenty feet long, fourteen feet high
and eight feet thick.
European carpenters from ships anchored
in the harbor were called
in to help construct a trestle
on
wheels on which the body could be transported.
Some captains
loaned cables
which were attached
to the "vehicle" for its
some three miles distant.
Five hundred
journey to the gravesite
a task
young men helped to pull the body to its destination,
that took four days.30
Such funerals not only assured
a secure
and dignified
in the next world.
arrival
They were an
to foreign
extravagant reminder that access
goods was now the
essence of power.
Similar
burial
were reported in the nineteenth
practices
At Landana near Cabinda,
for example,
Catholic
century.
missionaries
in 1896:
reported
"They wrap the corpse in an
enormous quantity of cloth.
They judge the wealth of the heirs
by the quantity of the cloth and by the thickness of the roll.
The corpses of important people can end by being eight
to nine
meters in circumference."31
Nor was the practice limited to the
Similar practices
were reported
for other
Loango Coast region.
and for the Teke.
In the 1890s one report
Bakongo people
the lower
suggested that two-thirds of all cloth
imported into
of the cataracts
was used for burials.32
Congo and region
Another concluded:
Contradictory as it may seem, the strong incentive
among
to travel and to trade, is not so
people to industry,
much to procure the money with which to buy food (their
wives can supply that),
but to hoard enough cloth ...
for a grand funeral
that will
be the talk
of the
for they believe
district;
that
the grander their
will
be their
in the
funeral, the better
reception
spirit
land....33
Pressures
to give
members as decent a burial as
family
possible were felt by ordinary people who had not the means to
hoard cloths
for such occasions.
A report
from Malemba, the
who could not find the
port of Kakongo, told how poor villagers
materials to give their
relations
a good burial were forced to
to bury their
go to the local mafuka, who gave them the cloth
dead.
Such actions
and his family under an
put the individual
7
POWER, CLOTHAND CURRENCYON THE LOANGOCOAST
obligation
use their
Cloth
and show how the
to the administrator
powerful
to reinforce
their
to cloth
access
authority.34
as Currency,
c.
could
1650-1900
of
the
substitution
mid-seventeenth
century,
By the
of
had
the
cloth
for
domestic
cloth
functioning
upset
imported
value
Its
the
sharply.35
dropped
currency.
"self-regulating"
that it
was so concerned
By 1649, the Angolan administration
to supplement
of a new copper currency
the introduction
proposed
and supply
the Loango Coast mbongo, whose value
they could not
that copper
until
It
was
not
control.
however,
1694,
adequately
and even after
the
Luanda currency
in
raphia cloth
replaced
the
into
in
circulation
the
cloth
that,
"money" remained
century.36
eighteenth
trade at the
of the slave
The expansion
Loango Coast ports
of the raphia
the decline
accelerated
after
about
1670 further
a wide
and French
as Dutch, English,
ships unloaded
currency,
African
onto
cloths
and
woollen
of
linen,
cotton,
variety
to buy
markets
in
local
use
in
markets.
Mongo continued
In
and salt.
dried fish,
as manioc, palm nuts,
foodstuffs
such
could
a libongo
about 1770,
the Kakongo capital
buy a day's
into
were divided
and goods
one person,
manioc for
supply of
At the same time, a slave
each worth a makuta.37
equal portions
"cloth money"
that he had seldom seen sufficient
trader reported
for
on exceptional
was only
to buy a slave.
It
occasions,
market
when
a
coastal
at
an
trader
arrived
when
inland
example,
were in
trade
and foreign
there were no ships in port
goods
and
he might
that
short
accept part payment in salt
supply,
raphia cloth.38
from domestically
Just as imported cloth came to take over
so it was
cloth
social
and political
in
contexts,
produced
At Luanda
in the
into the currency
integrated
system as well.
about six yards of
ten
makuta equalled
for
1660s,
example,
in the 1660s.39
coarse cotton
cloth
from the East Indies
By the
had come into
new systems
of
reckoning
eighteenth
century
existence
that were based on cloth but adapted to the exigencies
used an abstract
of
the
slave
trade.
At Loango Bay traders
one mukuta being
numerical
unit of account
based on a makuta,
to
10.
from the older
The unit
developed
equal
may have
association
Thus a slave-trader
of the mukuta with ten
mongo.
at Loango in 1701 wrote,
from 3,600-4,000,
"we bought men slaves
to be
and women, boys and girls
The goods
in
proportion."
were
also
unit of accountvalued
in the numerical
exchanged
for example,
a piece of "blue baft" or cotton
cloth
from India
counted as 1,000,
a piece of painted
was 600, a small keg
calico
of powder was 300, and a gun was 300.40
At Kakongo
had
and Ngoyo
a slightly
different
system,
the
midwhich
was
also
at
adopted
Loango
by
developed,
8
PHYLLISM. MARTIN
This was derived
from the value of six
eighteenth
century.
baft" or "guinea blue,"
the
"blue
of
cloth,
yards
probably
As the
cotton
cloths
that were consistently
popular.41
of trade goods became more varied and the volume of
selection
increased in the course of the eighteenth
traffic
century, the
The unit carried the
pihce became the standard unit of account.
cloth term but the currency
itself
did not physically
exist;
rather
the cloth
had become a "ghost-money."42
A
currency
French trader summed up the situation
"it
is the
succinctly,
custom to reduce everything
to pisces and to relate everything
to this ideal measure."43
At Cabinda in 1700, for example, six
yards of "blue baft" equalled one piece; six yards of tapseils,
another cotton cloth, equalled one piece; a musket equalled one
brass
basins
piece;
eight
weighing one pound each equalled a
one pi6ce.44
The
pi6ce; and two Dutch cutlasses
equalled
of goods,
assortment
or "bundle,"
exchanged for a slave was
valued in pi&ces, as was the slave.
The paramount importance of
cloth as the most significant
is shown
part of any transaction
in the fact that the bundle was divided
into two parts, termed
"large goods" and "small goods."
"Large goods" referred to the
various types of cloth in the bundle and "small goods" referred
to the remaining
items such as arms, powder, spirits,
and
hardware.45
A method of reckoning tied to cloth and cloth terminology
continued in use on the Loango Coast and throughout the lower
Zaire region
in the period
of commodity trade during the
nineteenth century.
Transactions
over palm products, and the
servants
and porters,
for example, were
payment of factory
reckoned in the "long" or cortado.
The terminology for the unit
of account had changed with the decline of French trade and the
and Portuguese
influence on the
predominance of English cloth
Loango Coast, but the basic unit remained six yards of a mediumcloth.
Thus, at the Dutch factory on the Kwilu
quality cotton
River on the northern Loango Coast in 1879, a gun was valued at
5 "long,"
4 knives
at one "long," and a gallon of rum at one
As European coinage became more common in the second
"long."46
half
of the century,
the "long" and the cortado also had
in French francs,
German marks
equivalencies
reis,
Portuguese
and English
The end of the cloth as a means of
shillings.47
reckoning came with the monetary economy and the spread of wage
labor in the colonial
period.
The history
of cloth
of the Loango
among the societies
Coast is, like so many other African stories,
one of continuity
and change.
The use of raphia cloth
but the
declined,
of cloth did not, as the transition
was made to
significance
Access
to cloth
remained an essential
European imports.
attribute
of power throughout
the precolonial
of the
history
Loango Coast,
perhaps more so than access to the firearms that
were once thought to be the key to understanding the changing
basis of power within and between African societies.
Now in the
POWER, CLOTHAND CURRENCYON THE LOANGOCOAST
9
later twentieth century, raphia cloth
is seldom used on the
in a religious
or ceremonial context in
Loango coast,
except
remote villages.
Funerals are still
times of enormous expense
as even the poorest
families
to give the deceased an
struggle
honorable burial,
but most people are now buried
in a wooden
coffin
and the consumption of cloth
on such occasions has
declined.
Yet cloth still
changes hands on important occasions,
for example,
at the conclusion of a marriage contract.
Births,
marriages, the end of the mourning period, the formation of a
new association
in the city, and a religious
or state festival
are all occasions for lavishing
resources on new cloths,
even by
those who can little
afford it.
The close association
between
cloth
and power has gone,
but cloth
remains
an outward
status and prosperity.
expression of friendship,
respect,
NOTES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A term used to describe
the coastal
between
regions
southern Gabon and the Zaire river.
du Royaume de Congo et des
Willy Ball, ed., Description
Contr6es Environnantes
et Duarte
par Filippo
Pigafetta
Lopes (1591) (Louvain, 1963), 64.
Olfert Dapper, Naukeurige
der Afrikaensche
Beschrijvinge
Gewesten, 2nd ed. (Amsterdam, 1676), 149, 199; J. Merolla,
"A Voyage to Congo and Several other Countries
in Southern
Africa," trans. from the Italian in A Collection
of Voyages
and Travels, compiled by A. Churchill
(London, 1732), I,
E. Pechuel-Loesche,
Die
634-635;
Loango
Expedition
J. Weeks,
III,
1882),
(Leipzig,
167-168;
Among the
Primitive Bakongo (London, 1914), 91.
E. G. Ravenstein,
The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell
in Angola and the Adjoining Regions (London, 1901), 69.
S.P.H. Naber, ed., Samuel Brun's Schiffarten
(1624) (The
Hague, 1924), 9; K. Ratelband, ed., Reizen naar West-Afrika
van Pieter
van den Broecke, 1605-1614
(The Hague, 1950),
64.
Weeks, Among the Primitive Bakongo, 97; K. Laman, The Kongo
(Uppsala, 1957), II, 100.
L. B. Proyart,
Histoire
de Loango,
Kakongo et autres
Royaumes d'Afrique (Paris, 1776), 108, 149.
Dapper, Beschrijvinge,
149; Brun, Schiffarten,
10, 13;
J. Cuvelier,
Documents
sur une
Mission
au
Frangaise
(Brussels,
52.
Kakongo, 1766-1776
For further
1953),
information on raphia cloth
see Andr6 Pandi,
production,
"La Place et le Role du Palmier dans le Civilisation
de
l'ancien Royaume Kongo du XVe au XIXe Si6cle,"
M6moire de
DES, 1984, Marien Ngouabi University,
27; HelUne Loir, "Le
10
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
PHYLLIS M. MARTIN
du Raphia
au Congo Belge,"
Annales du Mus6e du
Tissage
1 (1935),
III,
1-68; Laman, The Kongo, I, 71,
Congo Belge,
130-131.
22;
Brun,
Schiffarten,
155, 158;
Dapper,
Beschrijvinge,
Primitive
Weeks,
92-93;
Laman, The
Among the
Bakongo,
Maurice
Briault
I,
cited
in
Kongo,
144-145;
report,
J. Fourneau and L. Kravetz,
"Le Pagne sur la C6te de Guin6e
et au Congo du XVe Si6cle
A nos Jours,"
Bulletin
d'Institut
d'Etudes
7-8 (1954),
"La Place
9; Pandi,
Centrafricaines,
et le Role du Palmier,"
29.
Battell,
Adventures,
50; see also Gordon D. Gibson
Strange
and Cecilia
R. McGurk, "High-Status
the Kongo and
Capes of
Mbundu Peoples,"
Textile
Museum Journal,
71-96.
4,4 (1977),
For a survey of
see Angelika
von Stritzl,
Bakongo cloth,
aus
dem
Wiener
"Raffiaplusche
Konigreich
Kongo,"
ethnohistorische
3 (1971),
37-55.
blatter,
J. Picton and J. Mack, African
Textiles:
Looms, Weaving
and Design (London, 1979),
175.
Brun,
Schiffarten,
13;
Battell,
47;
Strange Adventures,
149.
Dapper, Beschrijvinge,
Carlos
184,
Dapper,
159,
194,
Beschrijvinge,
200-201;
Os Senhores
da Terra
e os Homens do Mar (Sio
Serrano,
76.
A. Brisio,
Monumenta
Paulo,
1983),
Also,
ed.,
- Africa
Missionmria
Africana
Ocidental
(Lisbon,
1956),
VI,
Pedro
Louis
52, account of
1611;
ed.,
Sardinha,
Jadin,
Rivalit6s
luso-n6erlandaises
au Sohio,
Congo, 1600-1675
and
T. Obenga,
(Brussels,
1966),
94;
"Habillement,
et
Parure
au Royaume de Kongo, XVe - XVIIIe
Cosmetique
Cahiers Congolais
Si6cles,"
et d 'Histoire,
d'Anthropologie
4 (1979),
21-38.
Cuvelier,
Les
Documents,
49; Frank Hagenbucher-Sacripanti,
Fondements
du Pouvoir
au Royaume de Loango
Spirituels
John M. Janzen,
(Paris,
1973),
39,
72;
Lemba, 1650-1930
(New York, 1982),
Os Senhores,
111.
33, 35; Serrano,
On lineage
and other social
relations
that were influenced
circulation
of
by the
see, for example,
prestige
goods,
Os Senhores,
K. Ekholm, Power and Prestige:
Serrano,
109ff;
The Rise and Fall of the Kongo Kingdom (Uppsala,
991972),
P.-P.
133;
N6o-Colonialisme
et
Colonialisme,
Rey,
Transition
au Capitalisme
253ff.
1971),
(Paris,
Adolf Bastian,
Die Deutsche
an der Loango Kuste
Expedition
I, 156-159,
I. Martins,
(Jena, 1874),
199, 262;
"Monarquia
do Ngoio,"
em Africa,
13 (1956),
199.
Portugal
n.s.,
Pieter
van de Broecke,
64.
For a discussion
of this point in relation
to the Kuba and
see
Jan Vansina,
The Children
raphia cloth production,
of
Woot (Madison,
185.
1978),
Dapper,
156-157,
Beschrijvinge,
168; Merolla,
"Voyage to
Congo," I, 675.
POWER, CLOTHAND CURRENCYON THE LOANGOCOAST
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
11
Pieter
van den Broecke,
66; Dapper, Beschrijvinge,
157;
L. B. Proyart,
Histoire
de Loango;
C. van Overberghe,
Les
1907, 385.
Mayombe, Brussels,
Pieter
van den Broecke,
de Royaume
45, 72; Bal, Description
de Congo, 37.
Paivo Manso,
Hist6ria
do
Dapper, Beschrijvinge,
158, 233;
At
Congo (Documentos)
(Lisbon,
1877),
270; R. E. Dennett,
the Back of the
Black Man's
Mind or Notes on the Kingly
Office
in
West Africa
(London, 1906),
48-49,
158; Laman,
The Kongo, I, 152.
Marion
"Cloth
as
the
Cloth
Johnson,
Money:
Strip
Currencies
of
in Dale Idiens
and K. G. Ponting,
Africa,"
Textiles
of Africa
eds.,
D. W. Ames,
(Bath, 1980),
193-197;
"The Use of
Transitional
Cloth
Money among the Wolof,"
American Anthropologist,
1016-1017.
57, 5 (1955),
For an account of Dutch
7, 9.
Battell,
Strange Adventures,
trade on the Loango
Coast in the seventeenth
see
century,
The External
Trade
of
the
Martin,
Phyllis
Loango Coast,
1576-1870
33-72.
For a consideration
of
(Oxford,
1972),
some of the factors
which influence
decisions
to
change to
cloth
or
to continue
foreign
using domestically
produced
see Marion Johnson,
"Cloth Strip
cloth,
Currencies,"
paper
at the ASA annual meetings,
1976.
presented
Houston,
161; L. Degrandpr6,
Dapper, Beschrijvinge,
Voyage 4 la C6te
Occidentale
fait
dans
les
et 1787
1786
d'Afrique
annres
(Paris,
1801),
I, 71.
Histoire
de Loango,
145-146.
Proyart,
Also,
Dapper,
to
183; Merolla,
Beschrijvinge,
"Voyage
I, 654;
Congo,"
Die Deutsche
Bastian,
I, 216.
Expedition,
Degrandpr6,
Voyage, I, 71.
W.F.W. Owen, Narrative
of a Voyage to Explore
the Shores of
Arabia and Madagascar (New York, 1833),
173.
Africa,
For Loango, see Martin,
External
for Ngoyo,
Trade, 158-174;
see
Os Senhores,
and Phyllis
M. Martin,
Serrano,
passim,
in Nineteenth-Century
Journal
"Family Strategies
Cabinda,"
of African
28, 1 (1987).
History,
Histoire
Degrandpr6,
I, 116-119,
Voyage,
141-154;
Proyart,
de Loango, 198-201;
49.
Cuvelier,
Documents,
"Miss&o de Landana," Portugal
em Africa,
3, 27 (1896) 16.
Alfred Mahieu, Numismatique
du Congo, 1485-1924,
(Brussels,
also Jan Vansina,
The Tio Kingdom of the Middle
n.d.),
15;
207-220.
Congo, 1880-1892
(London, 1973),
Weeks, Among the Primitive
Bakongo, 266.
D. Jos6 Franque,
os
Cabindas
N6s,
(Lisbon,
1940),
187;
A. Buttner,
Reizen im Kongoland (Berlin,
91.
1888),
158.
Dapper, Beschrijvinge,
Monumenta Missiongria,
Brisio,
IX,
376, n. 10; Lopes de
Ensaios
sobre
a
Estatistica
Lima,
das
Possessoes
e Benguela
Portuguezas:
III,
Angola
(Lisbon,
1846),
part 1, 54, 81-82.
12
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
PHYLLIS M. MARTIN
de Loango, 98,
Histoire
47; Proyart,
Documents,
Cuvelier,
160.
108,
Accounts and Papers,
British
XXIX, Evidence
Parliamentary
Committee ... on the Slave
the Select
of James Fraser to
Trade, 1790.
"A
M. Angelo de Gattino
and Dennis de Carli de Piacenza,
Years
1666
and 1667,"
in
A
to
the
Voyage
Congo in
Collection
of Voyages and Travels,
compiled by A. Churchill
(London, 1732),
I, 561; Merolla,
"Voyage to Congo," 740.
of
and Travels
N. Uring,
The Voyages
Captain Nathaniel
40.
Uring (London, 1928),
of a Voyage
"An Abstract
James Barbot
and John Casseneuve,
and to Cabinda in the Year
to the Congo River or the Zaire,
A Collection
of Voyages and Travels,
1700," in
compiled by
See
also Martin,
A. Churchill
V, 513.
(London, 1732),
External
Trade, 107, 108 fn. 4.
"Cloth as Money," 193.
Johnson,
Degrandpr6,
Voyage, I, 58.
Barbot and Casseneuve,
"Voyage to the River Congo," 513.
See Martin,
External
Trade, 106-114.
van de Zuid-West Kust van
0. Z. van Sandick,
Herinneringen
For further
discussion
of the
40.
Afrika
(Deventer,
1881),
see Norm Schrag,
"Mboma
use of
the "long" and the cortado,
of a Kongo
and the
A Socio-Economic
Lower Zaire:
Study
c. 1783-1885"
Indiana
(Ph.D.
thesis,
Trading
Community,
1985).
University,
P. Gissfeldt,
Die Loango Expedition
1879),
62-63;
(Leipzig,
Van Sandick,
50; J. Dybowsky, La Route du
Herinneringen,
Tchad:du Loango au Chari
(Paris,
1883),
16; F. A. Pinto,
411.
1888),
Angola e Congo (Lisbon,