This work is among the earliest reliquary sculptures from equatorial Africa brought to Europe. It was collected over the course of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza's explorations of the region that laid the foundation for French sovereignty over the Middle and Upper Ogooué River system, the Loango coast, the Kwilou Niari River, and the Congo River system north of the Malebo Pool. Scientific collections gathered during the third of three missions (1883–85) were first presented in Paris at an exhibition sponsored by the Ministère de l'Education Nationale at the Orangerie of the Jardin des Plantes in July of 1886.