Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that the pillaging of African judicial objects and the creation of ethnographic museums in Angola was the culmination of a long and deliberate process of colonial legal unification. It focuses on BaKongo 'minkisi' sculptures, highlighting their diverse judicial roles.

Paper long abstract:

In 2015, Wyatt McGaffey published a brief article about some of the minkisi (BaKongo wooden sculptures) that the Portuguese violently collected during the ‘pacification campaigns’ (1885 – 1910) they fought against the remnants of the Kingdom of Loango, in Cabinda (West Central Africa). These African pieces are now held in Portuguese, German, and Belgium museums. According to McGaffey, the minkisi that were then pillaged were central to the ‘maintenance of a degree of law and order’, guaranteed ‘treaties and reconciliations’, and played a role in the administration of the ‘nkasa poison ordeal’ (2015, 149-150). This judicial ordeal was like dozens of others that the Portuguese had encountered in the ‘kingdoms’ of Angola and Benguela since the sixteenth century. Building on McGaffey’s art-historical analysis of these minkisi, this paper will situate their pillaging in the wider context of the legal history of Angola, arguing that the removal of these judicial objects was the culmination of a long process of colonial legal unification. To do so, it will begin by introducing the first systematic efforts made by Governor Generals of Angola to dismantle the shadow judiciary system that persisted in conquered African kingdoms and provinces (c. 1765 – 1810). It will then focus on the criminalization of African ordeals as ‘poison’ ordeals (c. 1860s), and finally turn its attention to the creation of ethnographic museums and institutions (1860s onwards), arguing that these institutions were designed to hold and neutralize the judicial objects that were central to this ‘shadow judiciary’.