Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste

Bastian, Adolf; Bolz, Peter; Fischer, Manuela; König, Viola; Köpping, Klaus-Peter; Laak, Dirk van

doi:10.5479/sil.239670.39088000179952

Cited by 31 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…A similar situation is reported by the German explorer Adolf Bastian in his book “Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste” (1874) [ 32 ]. Beside the earth graves with their typical cookware decoration and wooden constructions on the graveyards for burial ceremonies, he also mentioned a tree called Sandä , planted at the graves.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Stories told by plants on graveyards in Northern Angola

Lautenschläger

Mandombe²,

Mawunu³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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Background Worldwide, different traditions of symbolic statements in graveyards can be found. However, studies on sub-Saharan Africa are rare. For BaKongo cemeteries, it is only known that they traditionally do not exhibit plants for decoration purposes. Our study wanted to inspect the influence of Portuguese culture due to the long shared colonial past. Methods During 2015 and 2019, plant use in 87 graveyards in 13 municipalities of the province Uíge was documented. Five expert interviews with the village eldest in five municipalities completed the data collection. Results While 24% of the graveyards didn´t have any planting, 27 plant species were found in the remaining ones, including a high percentage of alien species (59%), mainly from the Americas. The most abundant plant species are Euphorbia tirucalli (23%) and Agave sisalana (22%). With increasing distance from the city Uíge (especially towards the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the utilization of living plants in cemeteries is decreasing except along the road. In most of the cases, just one plant species per gravesite was found. Conclusions This unexpected high number of plants might be interpreted as a strong evidence of outside influence. Cultural symbols of the BaKongo cosmology and Christianism appear to coexist or coalesce. Furthermore, plants are used as a marker for graveyards. Modern influences like the use of concrete in proximity to urban areas indicate a certain wealth.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Stories told by plants on graveyards in Northern Angola

Lautenschläger

Mandombe²,

Mawunu³

et al. 2020

PLoS ONE

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“…Olifert Dapper's compilation of voyagers' data relating to the Loango coast stands out as a remarkable seventeenth-century achievement, as does the eighteenth-century account of the adventurous sailor, Andrew Battell [Ravenstein] (1901). From the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the findings and collections of the German ethnographic expeditions (Bastian, 1874;Pechuel-Loesche, 1907) are particularly noteworthy, while the writing of the English merchant Dennett, though somewhat confusing, nonetheless provides a view of one actively engaged in life at Loango. Still, with much of this material, one is never quite clear of the contextual significance of words such as fetish',`idol' or the varied inscriptions of nkisi.…”

Section: The Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

There are Many Kongo Worlds: Particularities of Magico-Religious Beliefs Among the Vili and Yombe of Congo-Brazzaville

Hersak¹

2001

Africa

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The article analyses the distinctiveness of magico-religious practices in the north-western sector of the vast Kongo cultural complex, namely among the peoples who refer to themselves as Vili and Yombe. On the basis of fieldwork and a critical examination of the sources, the article points out that such widely distributed terms of proto-Bantu origin as nkisi cannot be covered by a single or even a multi-stranded definition; the variants, ranging from spirit to object, express local and time-specific beliefs. An approach that seeks a single Kongo universe is an ethnographic, historical and linguistic misreading that obscures existing regional concepts while possibly overlooking the importance of other notions. The article focuses on sorting out the basic ethnographic data relating to the beliefs current in the region and reveals not only long-standing aspects, some of them common to the wider Kongo world, but also those that have developed more recently in this particular coastal zone where different peoples trade and interact.

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“…Two others appear in the kinglists, but they never followed up their election by going through with the costly coronation procedures, and lacked authority. 19 In 1881 a Portuguese observer summed up a situation which was already beginning to emerge by the beginning of the century:…”

Section: The Dominant Families At Cabinda C L 8 O O : the Basis Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He seemed like a master carpenter in Sunday clothes rather than an African king.. . 54 64 Ibid., 117. Highly ornate caps made from pineapple, banana and raphia fibres were worn as signs of authority by persons of rank throughout the Kongo region.…”

Section: The Rise Of the Franque Family: The Career Of Franciscomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…63 He clearly did not have the wealth of the Franques but he did have considerable status as an educated person, known to the Luanda government as pro-Portuguese, with a brother acting as Regent at the capital and the designated ruler of Ngoyo living in his village. 64 A later Portuguese report summed up the situation, 'the Punas are truly nobles through birth, the Franques through money'. 65…”

Section: The Rise Of the Franque Family: The Career Of Franciscomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Family Strategies in Nineteenth-Century Cabinda

Martin

1987

J. Afr. Hist.

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In the nineteenth century, the entrenched power of three Cabindan families, Nsambo, Npuna and Nkata Kolombo, was challenged by the rise of the Franques. The dominant figure, Francisco Franque, amassed wealth through a close alliance with Brazilian slave traders and through freighting goods and passengers in ‘coasting’ vessels which were locally built. At the same time he invested in a large household and attracted to his village dependents who provided labour and armed support for the expansion of his territorial base. Beyond the village, Franque, like other ‘big men’ at Cabinda, depended on an alliance with kinsmen for the defence of family interests. In the last quarter of the century, the Franques were weakened by the end of the slave trade, by disputes over inheritance rights, following the death of Francisco Franque, by the challenge of Manuel José Puna and by the emigration of junior family members in search of employment in the colonial economy of Angola and neighbouring territories. After 1885, under Portuguese colonial rule, the household was no longer a principal unit of production and family cohesion was no longer relevant. European settlers and companies moved into prime land and the emigration of workers, including women, intensified in the face of deteriorating economic conditions. Some individuals continued to have access to privilege, as far as that was possible in Angolan colonial society, through education. At Cabinda, the Portuguese authorities gave at least nominal recognition to some senior family members, for example at official celebrations. The name of the old families lived on through prominent individuals although their collective power and influence had been drastically undermined.

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Die deutsche Expedition an der Loango-Küste

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Stories told by plants on graveyards in Northern Angola

Stories told by plants on graveyards in Northern Angola

There are Many Kongo Worlds: Particularities of Magico-Religious Beliefs Among the Vili and Yombe of Congo-Brazzaville

Family Strategies in Nineteenth-Century Cabinda

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