The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo by Cécile Fromont

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo by Cécile Fromont Andrea Mosterman The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo. By Cécile Fromont. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2014. Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, VA. Pp. xx, 283. $45.00. ISBN 978-1-4696-1871-5.) In 1491, only eight years after the Portuguese first visited the Kingdom of Kongo in 1483, Kongo King Nzinga a Nkuwu (r. 1470–1509) converted to Christianity, changing his name to João I. With his conversion, a centuries-long relationship commenced among the Kingdom of Kongo, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Catholic Church. João’s son Afonso I Mvemba a Nzinga (r. 1509–42) strengthened these close connections when he made Christianity Kongo’s state religion. Christianity continued to be an important part of Kongolese religious, social, and political life until it slowly began to decline in the nineteenth century due to European colonization in the region. In her book The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo, Cécile Fromont argues that the Kongolese elite did not just adopt Christianity; instead, they made it distinctly Kongolese, which Fromont calls Kongo Christianity. Fromont reveals how Kongo Christianity manifested itself in swords, crosses, clothing, regalia, architecture, rituals, and celebrations. Through examination of these cultural objects, Fromont shows that Kongolese engagement with Christianity transformed their beliefs, political discourses, and social organizations. She argues that these cultural objects became “spaces of correlation” (p. 1) in which deliberate cross-cultural interactions were mutually transformative for both Christendom and the Kongo worldview. Due to the Kongo elite’s close connections with Europeans and the frequent visits of missionaries, such as Jesuits and Capuchin Friars, to the region, a large body of written sources describes precolonial Kongo. Over the years, several scholars, including John Thornton, James Sweet, and Richard Gray, have used these documents to examine Christianity in the Kongo Kingdom, but thus far scholars had not thoroughly examined Kongo’s material and visual culture. Through analysis of these materials, Fromont provides new insights into the development of Kongo Christianity. In particular, her examination of Kongo-produced art and material culture shows how Kongolese elite reshaped Christianity to fit their religious thought, political concepts, and visual forms. She further demonstrates that Kongo Christianity permeated all parts of society. Although Fromont centers her analysis on the Kingdom of Kongo, she shows that Kongo Christianity extended its influence far beyond West Central Africa. Due to its involvement in Atlantic commerce and politics, the Kingdom of Kongo and the Kongolese people became important participants in the Atlantic world. Enslaved Kongolese who were brought to Europe and the Americas exported their Christian beliefs, imagery, symbolism, and rituals, which reappeared in celebrations [End Page 651] such as the Pinkster festival in New York and congadas in Brazil. But free Kongolese people, including Kongolese ambassadors, also traveled throughout the Atlantic, displaying Kongo Christianity in, for example, their clothing and regalia. The Art of Conversion is divided into five chapters, each of which focuses on different cultural objects, from the central African ritual of sangamento to the Kongo crucifix. The chapters include multiple illustrations of the various objects of analysis, including drawings of Kongolese rituals by Capuchin Friars; European paintings of Kongolese ambassadors; and images of Nkisi, Kongo crucifixes, swords, and mpu caps. The Art of Conversion includes ninety-three illustrations, which makes it a valuable reference work for anyone interested in religious, Christian, and precolonial African art and material culture. The Art of Conversion is published at a time of great interest in Kongo material and visual culture. In 2014–15 “The Kongo Across the Waters” exhibition brought Kongo artifacts usually housed in Belgian’s Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren to several museums across the United States. In 2015–16 the exhibition “Kongo: Power and Majesty” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York further highlighted Kongo arts and culture. Like those exhibitions, The Art of Conversion draws attention to the rich cultural heritage of this Central African kingdom and reveals how much of it...