ZOMBO SCULPTURE 119 (1932: 21), the Zombo mentioned by Lopez were vassals of the mani Mbata, while the Bambata were his direct subjects. He thus refers to the Zombo as “brothers of the former Bambata race” (1932: 41). That the relationship between the Zombo and the Bambata (people of Mbata) isn’t at all clear is demonstrated by the fact that some authors use both ethnonyms next to each other or even interchangeably. In one and the same chapter, Joseph Van Wing (1959: 74–75) speaks about the “Bambata Bazombo” and the “Bambata or Bazombo.” He calls them “pure Bakongo.” Joseph Mertens (1942: 117) holds that the actual Kongo made no distinction between the Bazombo and Bambata. This raises the question as to whether they were one and the same people or if their affinity grew so close over the course of centuries. It is obvious that the ethnonym Bambata is linked to the name of the historical province, but it is also clear more than one people inhabited this heavily populated area. The Zombo aside, the Nkanu are known to have been part of Mbata, which, according to Mertens (1942: 117), accounts for the affinities between the two cultures. He shares this idea with Van Wing (1959: 74), who adds: “The Bankanu: they hardly differ from the Bambata, they generally share pronunciation, social institutions, and religious customs.” Mertens also points out the close relationship between the Bambata or Bazombo and the Bampangu. Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem (1998: 881) takes this matter even further: “Mbata: which included the Zombo, the Nzolo, the Nsongo, the Mulaza.”5 And finally, Olga Boone (1973: 169) says of the Zombo: “It is virtually impossible to assess their numbers, they are interconnected with the Mbata on both sides of the Inkisi near the Angola border.” An explanation for this unclear and intertwined relationship between the Mbata and Zombo may lie in the fact that the peoples in question were largely sedentary. They lived from agricultural activities (cultivating manioc, maize, and plantain), hunting and fishing, and seasonal trade. Joachim Monteiro (1968: 140) writes that their caravans traveled during the “cacimbo,” or dry season, when the rivers along their routes could be forded. Boone (1973: 169) describes the Zombo as a specialized subgroup of traders among the Mbata. Van Wing (1959: 75) calls them “intermediaries and penetrative commercial agents” who dispersed both ideas and European trade items. René Devisch (1993: 182) further states that the Mbata and “Zoombo” (as well as the Tsootso) were intermediaries in trade networks centered in Luanda, now the capital of Angola. FIG. 2: Nlongo mask. Zombo, Kibokolo, Uíge Province, Angola. Before 1903. Wood, fiber, pigment. H: 77 cm. Collected by the Rev. Thomas Lewis. Purchased from Edward Gerrard & Sons. Collection of the British Museum, London, Af1905,0609.2. © The Trustees of the British Museum. FIG. 3: Nlongo mask. Zombo, Kibokolo, Uíge Province, Angola. Before 1903. Wood, fiber, pigment. H: 90 cm. Collected by the Rev. Thomas Lewis. Purchased from Edward Gerrard & Sons. Collection of the British Museum, London, Af1905,0609.1. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
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