Heart and Soul: Glimpses of Ideology and Cosmology in the Iconography of Tombstones from the Loango Coast of Central Africa

The tombstones found along the Congo coast incorporate complex ideographic images that layer and juxtapose elements of traditional belief with often contradictory and syncretic interpretations of Christianity. Some aspects of this process indicate a convergence of traditional and Christian symbolic imagery. Other elements are more problematic and suggest that even while active resistance to European political hegemony was taking place, contradictory European values and priorities were being internalized within the Congolese cognitive structure, resulting in a form of "cultural schizophrenia."