Catholic Missionary being Entertained by Head of Village, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s

The village head or chief (mani) and the Capuchin missionary are seated on stools in front of a house; villagers bring provisions, presumably gifts for missionary. One of the Africans is kneeling, holding a cross. Caption notes that the head of the village has offered a house to the missionary for the period of his stay in the village; only the village head and missionary are allowed to sit; the man kneeling with the cross is the interpreter. This source in Italian is a modern printing of a 1747 manuscript (located in the Biblioteca Civica of Turin) which describes Capuchin expeditions to the Kingdom of Kongo. The watercolor paintings record moments in the daily lives of missionaries Bernardino Ignazio and Gaspare da Bassano, who were resident in Sogno from 1743-1747. Sogno (Sonyo in English) was a province of the kingdom. The illustrations and accompanying manuscript were done by Ignazio. (Thanks to James Sweet for assistance in interpreting the source.)

Image Title

Catholic Missionary being Entertained by Head of Village, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s

RegID

SI-OB-682

Date

1740-1750

Title

Catholic Missionary being Entertained by Head of Village, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s

Source

Paola Collo and Silvia Benso (eds.), Sogno: Bamba, Pemba, Ovando e altre contrade dei regni di Congo, Angola e adjacenti (Milan: published privately by Franco Maria Ricci, 1986), p. 181.

Language

Italian

Item sets

Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture

Spatial Coverage

Africa--West Central North

Reproduced In

Paola Collo and Silvia Benso (eds.), Sogno: Bamba, Pemba, Ovando e altre contrade dei regni di Congo, Angola e adjacenti (Milan: published privately by Franco Maria Ricci, 1986), p. 181.

Researchers

Handler, Jerome; Tuite, Michael; Randall Ericson; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May

Identifier

sogno181