HO.01959.84.1

Tippu Tip? Hard to prove

In 1949, Spiros Dandoudis, an inhabitant of what was then the Belgian Congo, left this piece of jewellery in the museum’s custody and offered to sell it, but nothing came of that. For some unknown reason, the piece remained in the museum anyway, and in 1959 it was added to the collection as ‘Tippu Tip’s necklace’. Tippu Tip was the nickname of Muhammad El-Murjebi (ca. 1837-1905), an influential slave trader. 

However, the attribution to Tippu Tip is difficult to substantiate. We know that, until the early 1930s, the necklace was owned by Yakaumbu Kamanda Lumpungu (1890-1936), a Songye chief from Kabinda. According to Dandoudis, he would have inherited the necklace from his father, Lumpungu Ngoy Mufula (ca. 1860-1919) – who, in turn, would have received it as a business gift from Tippu Tip himself, or perhaps from his son Sefu. This cannot be ruled out, but is by no means certain.

Sold or confiscated? 

Nor is it clear how the necklace disappeared from Chief Yakaumbu Kamanda Lumpungu’s possession. In 1935, he was arrested and imprisoned on double murder charges. He appealed, but a year later was sentenced to death. Since he also had to pay a fine and part of the court costs, the colonial administration seized his bank accounts. Did the necklace disappear at this time? According to the museum’s acquisition file, Chief Kamanda had sold the jewellery to an anonymous Belgian mechanic, some time before his execution. According Kamanda’s grandson, however, the colonial authorities confiscated the necklace, together with his grandfather’s other possessions. Research conducted by the historian Donatien Dibwe appears to support this contention: for many Congolese, it is inconceivable that a righteous Songye chief would have sold the necklace himself.