Power, Cloth and Currency on the Loango Coast

Cloth was a basic resource for the peoples of the Loango Coast throughout their precolonial history. It was used in life for furnishings and for clothing; it was essential in landmark events such as initiation and burial ceremonies; it was of key transactions that cemented lineage and state alliances; and it served as a currency. The importation of European cloth from the sixteenth century began a transition from indigenous, domestically produced cloth to a reliance on cloth, but cloth maintained its significance as a key resource at all levels of society. Access to sources of cloth control of its distribution were closely associated with the wielding of power, whether by royal administrators, lineage , religious specialists or merchant-brokers.