Standing male power figure "biteki" ·  R. D. Congo, Suku · ID: 3035780

Description

light wood, remains of kaolin, cotton loincloth, one face-half blackened, a small package with magical loading and wooden sticks on the right, opening in the body filled with mass and red “khula”, min. dam., cracks, abrasion of paint, acrylic base;
figures which are used as receptacles or supports for magical preparations are called “biteki”. When they are charged with magical ingredients, the image becomes a particular type of “nkisi”, the medicine-poison that “make ill” - “kukwata” or “make well” - “kubuka” by an invisible influence. The particular form of a statuette does not generally permit identification of its function, the kind of loading alone determines its purpose. Without these applied preparations which permeate the surface, or are insert into a ventral cavity, or are attached to or hang from the image, they are without meaning to the Yaka and Suku.