When this staff finial was made, the Congo was ruled by a rapacious colonial power, Belgium. Belgian rule in the Congo (1885–1960) began with King Leopold II’s brutal, private "Congo Free State" (1885–1908), notorious for atrocities, forced labor, and millions of deaths for rubber profit. It became a formal Belgian colony in 1908, marked by a "colonial trinity" of state, missionary, and corporate control, focusing on resource extraction until independence. The tribes of the Congo were in turn ruled by their own leaders who demanded regalia to assert their power and authority over others by the use of chief staffs, etc. This is one example of such artwork.
Staff finial
ivory
early 20th century
Yombe culture
DRC Congo
Africa
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