STORIES IN IVORY 131 EUROPEAN IMAGES Ivory sculptors drew their inspiration not only from the Loango society to which they belonged but from newspapers, magazines, photos, and even personal visits to Europe and America. The eyewitness whom I have already cited also stated in an article published in 1889 that “Kongo-Vili sculptors often hung ‘illustrated papers’ in their workshops” (Bridges, 2009: 5–6). Photos and illustrations for the European market were thus apparently circulating among the sculptors, whether or not they had been furnished to them by their clients. Similarities between the subjects of these photos and the scenes observed on tusks are striking: porters transporting elephant tusks, types of people, wild animals, etc. Some ivory sculptors even traveled to Europe and America to demonstrate their skills and their art at universal expositions. The ivories they produced often include scenes they observed while participating in those expositions (see Bridges, 2009: 45– 59). They brought their European and American experiences and impressions back home to Loango with them and probably integrated them into their work for the remainder of their careers. This could explain the appearance of animals and human figures that are difficult to identify. Tusks that display these “imported impressions” certainly offered inspiration to other ivory sculptors in turn, and this offers a plausible explanation for the dispersion of these images over time and space. FIG. 24: Hat carved from wood. National Museums of World Cultures, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. RV 2668-906. Artis donation, 1920. Ex L. S. Anema, 1884. 14. The population was particularly mixed, made up not only of Kongo and Vili, but also of Yombe, Woyo, Teke, and Songo from remote parts of the Congo; of Africans from other parts of the continent (West Africa); and of European Africans of mixed origin. The latter was made up of Europeans, of Africans with European educations, and of Afro-Europeans. After Vansina (1990), Bridges no longer considers the term “Vili” an ethnonym, but rather a designation for a distinct population group. To support her hypothesis, she notes that the term was even used in the Loango area to refer to a social class of influential merchants, which included Africans of diverse origin whose only traits in common were their profession and that they had settled all along the Lower Congo. Moreover, on colonial maps, all of the inhabitants of the coastal area were called “Vili” (2009: 14, 18–29). 15. Not all of Europe was active in the Congo area. In the nineteenth century, there were only six nations there with commercial posts: Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, England, France, and Germany. 16. The main export products both north and south of the Congo River were ivory, and resin gum. At the mouth of the river, they were mainly palm oil, ivory and rare tropical woods. Around 1870, trade was limited to five main products: palm oil, palm kernels, peanuts, rubber, and ivory. There was, however, trade on a smaller scale in coffee, sesame seeds, tobacco, malachite, wax, and baobab fiber. For their goods, the Congolese received textiles, iron, copper, weapons and ammunition, and small objects like hats and porcelain (Friedman, 1991: 16). 17. J. W. Regeer chronicled his experiences from his trading post that he managed alone from 1873 to 1882. He also wrote: “There are weeks when I do not see a single white person” (1882: 6). 18. According to a personnel list at the main trading post in Banana (Friedman, 1991: 25–26). 19. See Phyllis Martin (1972) for a complete account. 20. We cannot exclude the possibility that the local elite also acquired Loango ivories. In support of the idea that they may have, we cite a study by John Jantzen (“The Art of Lemba in Lower Zaire,” 1990, Iowa Studies in African Art 3, pp. 93–118). He indicates that tusks primarily representing male-female relations could be closely associated with the Lemba secret society that was active from the beginning of the seventeenth century through the beginning of the twentieth in the Lower Congo region. Ultimately it was through the intermediary of wealthy members of the Lemba that these types of tusks entered into Western private collections and museums. This subject merits further research. 21. Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Robert Visser (1860 Düsseldorf–1937 Büderich) left in 1882 to work as a member of the NAHV staff in Africa and settled as a plantation owner in the Lower Congo area. He spent twenty-two years there, although with several interruptions, and finally returned to Germany definitively in 1904. In the course of his stay there, he collected many ethnographic objects for a variety of German museums and also, according to him, took some 500 photos. Unfortunately, only a very few survive, many originals having disappeared during World War II. A number of his photographs that were used for postcards are held by museums around the world.
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