Untitled Image (Daniel de Silva, Count of Songo)
This image represents a dignitary from Songo (Sogno), which was a province in the Kongo kingdom in the Kwanza north region. De Silva wore a formal dress, including a long bead necklace and a slave was at his side. According to Dapper, "the Count of Songo is the most powerful of the vassals of the King of Congo (p. 355). A modified/altered version of this image is in Thomas Astley (ed.), A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels (London, 1745-47), vol. 3, plate 22, facing p. 240. In an informed discussion of Dapper as an historical source, Adam Jones writes "there is virtually no evidence that Dapper took much interest in what sort of visual material was to accompany his text, and that it was the publisher, Van Meurs, who probably did all the engraving himself." With respect to the plates, in particular, Jones concludes that "for those interested in seventeenth-century black Africa rather than in the history of European perceptions, few of the plates showing human beings and artefacts are of any value. . . [and] originated solely from Van Meurs' imagination. . . [although] they have been used as historical evidence in modern works." See Jones, "Decompiling Dapper: A Preliminary Search for Evidence" History in Africa, 17 (1990), pp. 187-190.
Image Title
Untitled Image (Daniel de Silva, Count of Songo)
RegID
SI-OB-639
Date
Late-1600s
Title
Untitled Image (Daniel de Silva, Count of Songo)
Source
D. O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique. . . Traduite du Flamand (Amsterdam, 1686; 1st ed., 1668), p. 356. Copy in the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
Language
French
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--West Central North
Reproduced In
D. O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique. . . Traduite du Flamand (Amsterdam,1686; 1st ed., 1668), p. 356.
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Identifier
DAP4