According to the caption, the lithograph shows the manner in which subjects were brought to court in the country governed by the Demboa. (Today, Demboa is part of the state of Borno in northeast Nigeria.) The man being led to court wears a forked branch around his neck. The forked end is secured by a rod; the bailiff holds the other end. (The branch is like those commonly used in the African slave-trade, and frequently featured in depictions thereof.) Additionally, the man's hands are held together by a frame-like, rectangular, wooden (?) restraint. While he wears only a plain white loin-cloth, the bailiff is clothed in colorful, patterned fabrics., Plate 13 in Jean-Baptiste Douville's Voyage au Congo et dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique equinoxiale: fait dans les années 1828, 1829 et 1830 (A Paris: Chez Jules Renouard, libraire, rue de Tournon, n. 6; Imprimé chez Paul Renouard, rue Garencière, n. 5, 1832)., Caption underneath the image reads: "Maniere de citer un sujet à comparaître devant le souverain, dans le pays gouvernés par les Demboa.", Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Creator
Daussi, lithographer
Date
1832
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Douv 10079.O plate 13, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2898
