Imagined Geographies, Metaphysical Materials

            How does define one the geographical boundaries of a region once delineated by its native residents, later redetermined by imperial forces and, most recently, by contemporary ethnic groups and neo-colonial states? One theme that seems to be emerging in researching the historic Kongo region of Africa is how nebulous the term seems to be in outlining actual nation-states and ethnic communities. Most clearly, the nations that speak Kongo or Kikonogo today are the Democratic Republic of Congo, and parts of Congo and Angola (http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Brazil-to-Congo-Republic-of/Bakongo.html). However, as there remain dispersed peoples who speak various creoles or dialects of the Kongo language, it is possible that bordering nations may also be home to descendants of the former kingdom. To speak generally of the Kongo region’s topography then, it appears to be primarily tropical rainforest and deciduous forest. This would result in essentially hot, humid seasons all year round.

Roughly delineated by nation, the more central parts

of this map including Democratic Republic of

Kongo, Angola and Congo are the regions that

historically made up the Kongo Kingdom.

In considering the geo-political implications of such a climate, what comes to mind is the difficulty in logistics of trade between communities living in dense forest regions. While there would be an abundance of wood for constructing buildings, ritual and functional works, the humidity would have aided in the decomposition much more rapidly than in a savanna, brush or desert region. This leads one to consider other materials employed in the crafting of artifacts, perhaps metallurgy or basketry for instance.

            Metallurgy as a medium can span a range of works in architecture, warfare artillery, domestic retainers, jewelry and ritual articles, as Eugenia W. Herbert explains in great detail in her piece on the importance of copper in ancient West Africa. Particularly in noting the ritual elements in manufacture, Herbert explains that young Zaghawa women were given headdresses of copper for their nuptial affairs, explaining that “aside from its ornamental and status value, copper was also considered to have amuletic or magical properties, in the first case encouraging fertility, in the second warding off danger” (183). She continues by pointing out that while certain metals such as copper may not have proven the most desirable in weaponry for its excessive malleable nature, they were fashioned nonetheless as “weapons made entirely of brass or copper, such as cutlasses, execution swords and axes, appear to have a uniquely ritual function, and belong in the category of kingly regalia and ensigns of power” (185). This discussion of functional materials also possessing inherent metaphysical energies presents a fascinating insight into the complexity of materials chosen in ritual artifacts, something I would like to explore further in researching historic sacred arts of the Kongo.