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Nkisi Nkondi, Congo, c. 1880-1920. Nkisi Nkondi, from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. The primary function of a nkondi is to be the home of a spirit which can travel out from its base, hunt down and harm other people. Many nkondi were publicly held and were used to affirm oaths, or to protect villages and other locations from witches or ...
Because many of the nkondi collected in the nineteenth century were activated by having nails driven into them, they were often called "nail fetishes" in travel writing, museum catalogs, and art history literature. Many nkondi also feature reflective surfaces, such as mirrors, on their stomach areas or the eyes, which are held to be the means ...
S/he then kills a chicken, which causes the death of a hunter who has been successful in killing game and whose captive soul subsequently animates the nkondi figure. [6] Based on this process, Gell writes that the nkondi is a figure an index of cumulative agency, a "visible knot tying together an invisible skein of spatio-temporal relations" of ...
For example, archeologists found the remains of an nkisi nkondi with iron wedges driven into the figure to activate its spirit in one of the cabins called the "curer's cabin." Researchers also found a Kongo bilongo , which enslaved African Americans created using materials from white porcelain to make a doll figure.
Nkisi nkondi of the Bakongo.They are a subclass of nkisi, objects believed to be inhabited by spirits, common across the Congo Basin. The beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse, and include various ethnic religions.
Nkisi were mainly destroyed by missionaries when the area was colonized. However, artistic traditions relating to them are present in contemporary art in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For instance, the idea of physical manifestations that alter one’s relationship with the world is a spiritual element possessed in contemporary Congo art.
There she meets up with another young girl from a different time and together they set out to find the magical Nkisi, vessels that hold ancestral spirits as well as empowering materials or ...
Power figure (nkisi nkondi) from Lower Congo is made to hunt witches [20] African witchcraft beliefs are incredibly diverse, reflecting the continent's rich tapestry of cultures and belief systems. These encompass a wide range of practices, from healing and divination to the worship of ancestral spirits and deities.