Kouilou R. KAKONGO NGOYO Luanda Brazzaville Kinshasa Libreville Mayumba Pointe-Noire Banana Soyo Niari R. Matadi KONGO Benguela Madingo-Kayes Mbanza Kongo Boma Padrão de São Jorge Padrão de Santo Agostinho LOANGO TEKE (TIO) ANGOLA CABINDA ANGOLA REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO GABON SÃO TOMÉ AND PRÍNCIPE ShShS arkrkr PoPoP int SeSeS aeae l PoPoP int Atlantic Ocean Congo River Chiloango R. Kwilu River Kwango River Lake Mai-Ndombe Malebo Pool R o° 10°S West Central Africa Brazzaville ANGOLA KONGO Modern capital Modern nation state Historic kingdom Earliest sites of Portuguese contact 0 200 km 0 200 mi ART on view 94 By Alisa LaGamma FIG. 1 (right): Map of West Central Africa. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. FIGS. 2a & b (below): Padrão de Santo Agostinho (Standard of Saint Augustine). Portugal. C. 1482. Limestone. H: 215 cm. Museu Etnográfi co–Sociedade de Geografi a de Lisboa, Lisbon (SGL-AC-131). Kongo: Power and Majesty intervention on a massive scale, a situation that has continued unabated into the present.3 The Portuguese quickly established trading relationships with the leadership of local polities. In some instances, expansion of existing commercial networks controlled by regional leaders initially augmented their power and infl uence. The tenor of the earliest encounters between emissaries of European princes and their Kongo counterparts was that of the respectful interactions of peers. Competing outside interests introduced a fundamentally destabilizing infl uence. A century after the arrival of the state-sponsored Portuguese delegations to the Kongo Kingdom’s capital, Mbanza Kongo, Dutch traders belonging to private companies positioned themselves further up the coast at Loango.4 Until the nineteenth century goods were relayed from the interior by local traders to Europeans, who were for the most part confi ned to the coast. Regional leaders jockeyed to maintain control of these networks and of their political autonomy. By 1884 the intense rivalries with and among European powers resulted in the subdivision of the broader Kongo populace into three distinct and arbitrarily drawn colonies claimed by Portugal, France, and King Leopold II of Belgium: Angola, Moyen-Congo, and the Congo Free State (in 1908 the Belgian Congo). The legendary brutality of the governance that followed is the lens through which virtually all our understanding of this region has been fi ltered. It was devastatingly captured in the West- An exhibition that radically redefi nes our understanding of Africa’s relationship with the West will be presented September 18, 2015, through January 3, 2016, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Focused on one of the continent’s most infl uential artistic traditions, Kongo: Power and Majesty takes as its point of departure the earliest moment of direct engagement between African and European leaders at the end of the fi fteenth century.1 In 1483 the navigator Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo River and planted a limestone monument, or padrão, at the site where he disembarked (fi g. 2). Carved in Lisbon, that landmark’s inscription recorded his mission for posterity as one of discovery sponsored by King João II of Portugal.2 At the time of his arrival, Kongo civilization spanned portions of present day Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola and was governed by a series of distinct principalities. Most infl uential among these were the kingdoms of Kongo and Loango. The mighty Congo tributary, known locally as Nzadi, “the large river that enters into the sea,” extends 2,920 miles (4,700 km) from the Atlantic to the highlands of what is today northeastern Zambia. The natural resources of Central Africa’s Lower Congo region are abundant and immediately made it a nexus for international trade. From the fi rst moment of contact with Europe, exploitation of that wealth ushered in foreign
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