Dec 22, 2015
Kongo chiefs commissioned artworks like this one to fight back against 19th-century colonialism.
“People whose heritage this is are happy to know of the resistance that happened,” she added. “It wasn’t that they just got hit by a tsunami and they just drowned.”
It's tempting to view the diminished universe of these Mangaaka figures as a sign of a culture’s defeat. But Alisa LaGamma, the curator responsible for the Met’s exhibition, reads the creation of these works as an incredible act of defiance.
“I see the banding together of artists and priests to come to the rescue in a time of crisis as this heroic effort to really bring art and spirituality to the people in the time of greatest need,” she said.