EO.0.0.31715
Paradebijl / Hache de parade / Ceremonial axe. Sankuru, RD Congo. [Tetela]. Before 1918. Wood, iron. Gift from widow of E. Storms. 1930. EO.0.0.31715.
Acquired during a violent period
The widow of the military man Emile Storms (1846-1918) gave the collections of her late husband to the museum in 1930. The collection contains various elements of Storms’ equipment, some documents and nearly 340 ethnographic objects. These ethnographic objects were acquired in the eastern part of DR Congo, while he was on an ‘exploratory mission’ for the Association Internationale Africaine that reached to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The mission resulted in the creation of the Mpala station on May 10th 1883, where Storms was located for more than two years, up until his final departure from Congo in July 1885.
The circulation of objects
Emile Storms’ collection contains several hundred weapons, including seven axes. Thanks to comparative research, this ceremonial axe has been attributed to the Tetela community of the Sankuru region in the centre of DR Congo. However, Storms himself never travelled to this region. Some of these objects were identified by him as originating from Maniema, a territory that was also inhabited by Tetela, and which borders the Sankuru region. Military men had established a post there on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. At the time, Tetela groups had already developed trade relations with Arabo-Swahili merchants, among whom Tippo-Tip, the well-known tradesman from Zanzibar. Thus, both objects and people were circulating between these regions at the time. For lack of archival evidence, it remains, for now, impossible to determine the exact place of origin of this object.