NAVIGATION

European Christian missionaries followed in the wake of the explorers who first started probing the interior heart of Africa around the turn of the 19th century. Until this period little was known of the internal affairs of the Congo region. The Congo peoples were first contacted at the mouth of the Congo River in the late 15th century and developed a steady trade in slaves and ivory with the Portuguese, but there was no European penetration into the interior until the mid-19th century, it remained ‘darkest Africa’. Livingston, Stanley and their followers, missionaries and adventurers, explored the area and sculptures and artefacts began to be collected from these new found peoples after about 1880. This ceremonial ivory baton or ‘parade sword’ was probably collected in the field during this period.