Human world
Ivory Madonna
Kongo, Democratic Republic of Congo or Angola, 19th century
Accession Number 49.41.82
European views of Africans were mainly positive in the 15th to the 17th centuries. In the 16th century the Kongo Kingdom adopted Catholicism as the state religion from the Portuguese. The ruling class already had a good relationship with European missionaries and traders. Catholicism only strengthened their cooperation and mutual respect.
However, in the 17th century the slave trade and political interference by the Portuguese helped split the Kongo Kingdom into small chiefdoms. Europeans gradually began to view Africans as uncivilised savages. These new views were used to justify slavery and colonial rule.
Europeans colonised Central Africa during the late 19th century. The region and its people were brutally exploited as Europeans forced Africans to harvest wild rubber. Europeans portrayed exploitation of African labour as a civilising influence, even though it caused great suffering to Central African peoples.
One reason why traders, missionaries and colonial officers enthusiastically collected African artefacts was because they wanted to destroy Kongo power, making it easier to impose European control over the people.
A Kongo ivory carver made this figure of a Madonna for a Catholic mission over 100 years ago. The Portuguese made their first Kongo converts to Christianity over 500 years ago.