Mangbetu Effigy Jug (reproduction)
\nTeaching Collection – Seton Hall University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology Collection
\nT2017.01.0009
\nCourtesy of the Walsh Gallery<\/p>\n
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CELEBRATING AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n This year\u2019s annual celebration of African American History Month is anchored by the theme \u201cBlack Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity,\u201d which focuses on the African diaspora and the spread of Black families across the United States.\u00a0 This reproduction from Seton Hall University\u2019s Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology is from the Mangbetu peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa.\u00a0 Like other Central and West African groups in the United States, the first Congolese arrived in the Americas as enslaved people during the transatlantic slave trade which endured from the 16th<\/sup> to the 19th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 \u00a0 Congolese people were often taken to locales in Louisiana\u00a0and\u00a0South Carolina.\u00a0 People from West and Central African regions comprised almost 40% of enslaved peoples in the Americas.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n Mangbetu refers to an amalgam of linguistically and culturally related people in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The group includes the Mangbetu, Meegye, Makere, Malele, Popoi and Abelu. These groups share the common language known as Kingbetu.[2] <\/a>\u00a0Beginning in the 1960s, a new influx of voluntary immigrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo arrived in the United States, primarily to pursue an education.\u00a0 Immigration from the country to the United States rose again in the 1990s.\u00a0 However, this time, Congolese people arrived as refugees due to civil conflicts, violence and economic hardship.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees reports that between 2008 and 2013, approximately 11,000 Congolese refugees arrived in the United States, settling primarily in Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, and New York.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n Despite this fraught history, the Mangbetu have held fast to many of their rich cultural traditions.\u00a0 They are especially known for their pottery, metal work and as makers of musical instruments.\u00a0 Women potters would have been the primary makers of effigy jugs like this figurative vessel with its characteristic dark, burnished surface.\u00a0 Though the Mangbetu still make jugs like these, they are now sold to tourists and art collectors rather than used in daily life. [5]<\/a> \u00a0The elaborate coiffure depicted on this jug is characteristic of a traditional Mangbetu woman and is not idealized.<\/p>\n Contemporary Ivory Coast artist Laetitia Ky is inspired by traditional hair styles from African peoples such as the Mangbetu.\u00a0 Her art is a fusion of hair, design and sculpture.\u00a0 Ky \u2018sculpts\u2019 her hair into the traditional forms she finds in archival images of African women.\u00a0 Ky then photographs her style and juxtaposes her image next to the historic photograph that inspired her.\u00a0 She also teaches \u201cKy-braid\u201d workshops to teach others how to style their hair in traditional African ways.\u00a0 Ky uses hair as a form of social justice \u2013 merging cultural and feminine pride while bringing awareness to issues such as violence against women, gender parity, colonialism and bullying.\u00a0 Ky uses her TikTok and Twitter accounts to reach the public.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n Laetitia Ky (left) with archival image of an unknown Mangbetu woman that inspired her.<\/p>\n This video shows an array of hairstyles from Africa such as the types that Ky is inspired by.\u00a0 You can see the Mangbetu hairstyle similar to the effigy jug around the 3:30 timestamp in this celebration of hair.<\/p>\n\n\n