Missionary - Angola, 19th century
This polychrome wooden figure reflects the significance of Catholic missionary work. Acting as intermediaries with various communities, missionaries became familiar with local customs, oral traditions, and the artefacts produced, playing a crucial role in ethnographic collection. Beyond evangelising, they greatly contributed to the development of certain ethnic groups and were responsible for introducing vast ethnographic collections to the world—collections that, without their efforts, would likely have been lost.
MCUC.ANT.Ang.1142
Science Museum of the University of Coimbra