SONGYE, DRC

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Among some cultures in the Congo Basin, the term nkisi or nkishi (pl. minkisi) refers to a spirit or an object that a spirit inhabits. It is a name most commonly associated with power figures, a major class of carvings that were used to counteract malicious sorcery and promote abundance and well-being. Minkisi were created jointly by a specialist carver, who shaped the figure’s form, and a ritual practitioner (nganga), who would empower and activate the figure with a magical charge of organic ingredients. The latter was either inserted into a cavity or attached to the body.

Europeans may have first encountered these objects during expeditions in the region as early as the fifteenth century. In the late 1800s, Christian missionaries who had come among the Songye and Kongo peoples confiscated such ‘fetish’ objects, as they were often called, and destroyed them as tools of witchcraft and heathenism. Despite their efforts to eradicate these works, many minkisi survived and passed into collections to be appreciated and studied by future generations.

The dark, textured and almost leathery patina of this nkisi, as well as the figure’s fragmentary nature, speak to a rich and perhaps tumultuous lifetime of use. Heavy lids and a benevolent expression give the face quite a naturalistic impression, one only enhanced by the organic detail of the surface, which suggests rough and aged skin and a surface which is deeply coated in a ritual covering of palm oil. The figure stands in a classic pose with bent arms, its hands resting on a bulging abdomen, where magical charges are often found.

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