Kongo raffia cloth currency
Tejido de rafia del Kongo como moneda
- Date
- c. 1500 · confidence medium
- Place
- Mbanza Kongo, Zaire, Angola
- Credited to
- Kingdom of Kongo
- Field
- Tools
What it is
Cloths of raffia palm fibre woven on a vertical loom, some pile-woven like velvet, which circulated as a unit of currency. The Portuguese compared them to silk.
Documented by the Portuguese from the late 15th century; raffia mbongo coexisted with nzimbu shells as currency.
What it led to
- a non-metallic monetary economy in Central Africa
- Kasai velvets and Kuba textiles
- diplomatic gifts from the Kongo to Europe