Chief's Chair: Explore Collections: Windows to the World: Digital Artifacts for Global Educators: Indiana University Bloomington

Chief's Chair

The chief’s chair of the Chokwe peoples is an excellent example of an object with foreign origins that was transformed by the design of an African people. The Chokwe are an ethnic group within the African country of Angola. The design of this chair was brought over by the Portuguese through trade. The chairs became an object of importance within the Chokwe household. Drawing inspiration from the imported chairs, Chokwe artisans began to make a structurally similar chair that was ornately decorated with scenes of importance in Chokwe life. These beautiful chairs were then used by the Chokwe chiefs, similar to thrones of European royalty.

If you take a close look at the chair, you can see that there are different carvings on the legs, back, and seat of the chair. What are the carvings on this chair? What do you think these carvings symbolize?

This chair is just one small part of a complex system of relationships between the Portugese and peoples living in northern Angola. In addition to objects such as chairs, humans were enslaved and sold to the Portugese. The connections don’t end at trade. Religious and political ideas were also exchanged between the Portugese and African communities.

Resources

Resource 1

Chief's Chair- St. Louis Art Museum

This chair is a symbol of political power and social hierarchy. The top of the chair back features the heads of five Chokwe chiefs in royal headdresses. Below the chiefs, on the lower back are carved images of three initiates of the young men’s masking society, an association controlled by the chief. Underneath the initiates, on one side are a pair of musicians who carry and play a wood slit drum. On the opposite rung are two women with tall pestles pounding food in a mortar. The other two rungs feature carvings of scenes from Chokwe life, including a man leading a cow. From the 16th century, Portuguese traders imported European-style joinery chairs and presented them as gifts to their African trading partners. As the chairs were traded into the interior, they became prestige objects and eventually served as prototypes for chairs used by Chokwe chiefs.

Resource 2

Excerpt of Letter from Nzing Mbemba to King Joao III- World History Commons

In addition to chairs and material goods, contact between the Portugese and the Kongolese also brought religious ideas. Kongolese king Afonso I was one of the first leaders in modern-day Angola to adopt Christianity. Evoking their shared religion, Afonso appealled to Portugese king Jao III to cease the trade of enslaved peoples. Material goods, such as chairs, religious ideas, and human beings made up the complex trade systems between Portugal and Angolan peoples.

Resource 3

Alfonso I of Kongo: The Ruler Caught Up in the Slave Trade- DW

Just as European chairs were used by chiefs as thrones, so too did European political structures shape structures in Angola. This brief video details how Afonso created a political system based on Portugal. The short interview, expands on the complex politics and trade between Portugal and Kongo.

Chief's Chair

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