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Power Figure: Male (Nkisi). Created circa 1800-1950, DRC, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 Nkisi or Nkishi (plural varies: minkisi , mikisi , zinkisi , or nkisi ) are spirits or an object that a spirit inhabits .
Because they are aggressive, many nkondi with human figures are carved with their hands raised, sometimes bearing weapons. The earliest representation of an nkisi in this pose can be seen in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Kongo, designed around 1512 and illustrated between 1528 and 1541, where a broken "idol" is shown with this gesture at the base of the shield. [5]
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The artistry of Yombe figurines and statues is well known, usually objects of prestige, kings seated on the throne, or female phemba (maternity) statues. [3] Nkisi nkonde figurines, masks and drums are also made for ceremonies. [4] Their funerary figures are renowned for their realistic depictions. [5]
Mangaaka Power Figure (Nkisi N’Kondi), Kongo artist and Nganga, Yombe group, Second half of the 19th centuryThe prehistory of Central Africa spans from the earliest human presence in the region until the emergence of the Iron Age in Central Africa.
Male Power Figure (Nkisi), Kongo artist and nganga, late19th–mid-20th century, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Supernatural objects that were reduced to the derogatory term, fetishes, by the Portuguese were said to be inhabited by nature spirits or deified people who embodied the extraordinary power of the spiritual world. These objects or ...
The Vili culture is rich in a secular history, a Matrilineality society which is the foundation of a Vili language full of nuances where proverbs have a prominent place; of an original measurement system, [1] of a spirituality whose Nkisi, [2] Nkisi Konde or nail fetishes are the famous physical representation. These artifacts are "commentaries ...
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 ...