Power figure "nkisi" ·  R. D. Congo, Bakongo · ID: 3036703

Description

wood, black patina on the face, the body greyish brown with small remains of black paint, hat-like headdress consisting of magical mass, leather tape, eyes with white porcelain inlay, small remains of resin, a lighter patina and a drilled hole indicate that magical loadings were originally attached to the belly and the neck, slightly dam., cracks (mass on the head, left face half), old missing part (base), base;
the “nkisi”-object is basically a container for animal, vegetable, and mineral materials known as “medicines” (“milongo” or “bilongo”) that expressed by their names, forms or provenance the aims that the “nkisi” was expected to achieve and the powers that enabled it to do so. In many “minkisi” (pl.) we might find leaves of the “lusakasaka” plant, that it might “bless” the supplicant. A single seed of “luzibu”, that it might “open” matters that are hidden or closed. “Kalazima” (charcoal), that it might “smite” evildoers, and always, white kaolin clay (“mpemba) to represent the presence of powers from the land of the dead. Most of the ingredients were first reduced to unidentifiable fragments or a powder. Without its constituent elements, a “nkisi” is nothing.