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Nkondi (plural varies minkondi, zinkondi, or ninkondi) [1] are mystical statuettes made by the Kongo people of the Congo region. Nkondi are a subclass of minkisi that are considered aggressive. The name nkondi derives from the verb -konda, meaning "to hunt" and thus nkondi means "hunter" because they can hunt down and attack wrong-doers, witches, or enemies.
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 evildoers. This is achieved by enlisting spiritual power through getting them to inhabit minkisi like nkondi.
The vocabulary of nkondi has connections with Kongo conceptions of witchcraft which are anchored in the belief that it is possible for humans to enroll spiritual forces to inflict harm on others through cursing them or causing them to have misfortune, accidents, or sickness. A frequently used expression for hammering in the nails into a nkondi is "koma nloka" (to attach or hammer in a curse) derives from two ancient Bantu roots *-kom- which includes hammering in its semantic field, and *-dog- which involves witchcraft and cursing. [2] "Kindoki", a term derived from the same root is widely associated with witchcraft, or effecting curses against others, but in fact refers to any action intended to enlist spirits to harm others. If exercised privately for selfish reasons, the use of this power is condemned as witchcraft, but if the power is used publicly by a village, tribe, political leaders, or as a protective measure by innocent people, however, it is not considered witchcraft. [3]
In the catechism of 1624, which probably reflects Christian language dating back to the now lost catechism of 1557, the verb koma was used to translate "to crucify." [4]
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] Nailed minkisi are not described in the literature left by missionaries or others in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.
Wyatt MacGaffey, citing the work of the late seventeenth century Capuchin missionary Luca da Caltanisetta, noted that in his day, nganga sometimes banged minkisi together, perhaps a method of activating them, and nails, which MacGaffey contends were first being made at the time eventually replaced the metaphor. [6] Other scholars believe that the Portuguese missionaries brought images of Christ nailed to the cross and the martyr Saint Sebastian to the peoples of Central Africa, and these experts believe that this iconography maybe have influenced nkisi tradition. [7] [8] MacGaffey, for his part, speaks against this interpretation, arguing that the concept of nailing is tied up with too many other concepts to be a simple misunderstanding of missionary teaching. [9]
Nkondi with nails were made at least as early as 1864, when the British Commodore A. P. Eardley Wilmont acquired one while suppressing Solongo (Soyo) piracy at the mouth of the Congo River, a piece that was the subject of a contemporary painting and is presently in the Royal Geographical Institute in London. [10] Another early description and illustration of a nailed nkondi (named Mabiala mu ndemba, and described as a "thief-finder") is found in the notes of the German expedition to Loango of 1873-76, so by that time the specific practice of nailing was well established. [11]
Nkondi, like other minkisi, are constructed by religious specialists, called nganga (plural zinganga or banganga). The nganga gathers materials, called nlongo (plural bilongo or milongo), which when assembled, will become the home of a spirit. Often these materials include a carved human figure into which the other bilongo are placed. The nganga then either becomes possessed with the spirit or places the finished nkondi in a graveyard or other place where spirits frequent. Once it is charged, the nkondi can then be handed over to the client. According to Kongo testimony of the early twentieth century, people drive nails into the figures as part of a petition for help, healing, or witness-particularly of contracts and pledges. The purpose of the nailing is to "awaken" and sometimes to "enrage" the nkisi to the task in hand.
Nkondi figures could be made in many forms, including pots or cauldrons, which were described and sometimes illustrated in early twentieth century Kikongo texts. [12] Those that used human images (kiteke) were most often nailed, and thus attracted collectors' attention and are better known today. Human figures ranged in size from small to life-size, and contained bilongo (singular longo; often translated as "medicine"), usually hidden by resin-fixed mirrors. Nkondi in the form of wooden figures were often carved with open cavities in their bodies for these substances. The most common place for storage was the belly, though such packs are also frequently placed on the head or in pouches surrounding the neck.
In most nkondi figures the eyes and medicine pack covers were reflective glass or mirrors, used for divination. The reflective surface enabled the nkisi to see in the spirit world in order to spy out its prey. Some nkondi figures were adorned with feathers. This goes along with the concept of the figures as being "of the above", and associates them with birds of prey.
The creation and use of nkondi figures was also a very important aspect to their success. Banganga often composed the nkondi figures at the edge of the village. The village was thought of as being similar to the human body. The idea that the edge and entrances needed to be protected from evil spirits occurred in both the human body and the village. When composing the minkisi, the nganga is often isolated in a hidden camp, away from the rest of the village. After the nkisi was built and the nganga had learned its proper use and the corresponding songs, he returned to the village covered in paint and behaving in a strange manner.
The unusual behavior was to illustrate the ngangas return to the land of the living. Prior to using the nkondi, the nganga recited specific invocations to awaken the nkondi and activate its powers. During their performances, banganga often painted themselves. [13] White circles around the eyes allowed them to see beyond the physical world and see the hidden sources of evil and illness. White stripes were painted on the participants. Often, the nganga was dressed similar to his nkondi. Banganga generally dressed in outfits that were vastly different than normal people. They wore ornate jewelry and often incorporated knots in their clothing. The knots were associated with a way of closing up or sealing of spiritual forces.
Kongo spirituality, concepts, and religious traditions made their way to Black Americans via the Atlantic Slave trade; many African diasporic religions in the Afro Americas, Lucumi, notably Palo, incorporates such traditions and customs. Robert Farris Thompson, an American art historian has been particularly diligent, and influential in identifying Kongo influences in the African descended population of the Americas. [14] [15]
European art collectors were interested in nkondi, especially the nailed ones, when they were reported back in the publications of the German Loango Expedition, which brought a good number of them back to Europe. Robert Visser, a German trader and diplomat also collected a great many examples for German museums, particularly in Berlin and Stuttgart. Many were purchased, others confiscated or removed by colonial authorities, and often found their way to museums, but many also remain in private hands.
More recently, artists have worked with the concept and visual imagery of nkondi to produce new works inspired by nkondi. African American artist Renee Stout's "Fetish no. 2" first exhibited in 1988 is perhaps the most famous of these, a life sized statue cast from Stout's own body with the glass eye features and a few nails reminiscent of nkondi. Stout's work was the subject of a major exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of African Art, featuring her various nkisi pieces with commentary by anthropologist Wyatt MacGaffey. [16]
In her mixed media composition "Intertexuality Vol. 1", African American artist Stephanie Dinkins disposed of the human figure of the nkondi but included the nails and the replaced the mirror with a video screen showing a 3-minute presentation, in an exhibition entitled "Voodoo Show: Kongo Criollo" in 1997. [17]
In her performance piece Destierro (Displacement) (first performed in Cuba and the US, 1998–99), Cuban artist Tania Bruguera dressed in a special suit made to resemble a nailed nkondi, and then, after remaining still for some hours, went around looking for those who had broken promises. She performed this piece also at the exhibit "Transfigured Worlds" (28 January-11 April 2010) at the Neuberger Museum of Art (New York). [18]
African American artist Kara Walker featured two nkondi figures in her silhouette piece "Endless Conundrum, an African Anonymous Adventure" in 2001, and frequently re-exhibited. [19] In her self-curated show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006, Walker also used an nkisi, probably nkondi as a central motif for the show "Kara Walker at the Met: After the Deluge." [20]
African American artist Dread Scott (Scott Tyler) exhibited an African featured toy doll as a nkondi, with bullets serving as nails, at the Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art (Newark, NJ) in 2006-2007 in the three person show "But I Was Cool". [21]
In African American artist Karen Seneferu's multi-media sculptures, "Techno-Kisi I" and "Techno-Kisi II" both based on a nkondi with rounded nails but she included elements of modern communications technology such as slide shows or iPods to replace the traditionally mirrored eyes and belly. Her work was originally commissioned by the California African American Museum and shown also at the Skirball Cultural Center in 2010. [22]
South African Artist Michael MacGarry exhibited “ivory sculptures referring to Nkondi sculptures as well as the catastrophic aftermath of war," in the exhibition, "Contested Terrain" at the Tate Gallery, London, in August, 2011. [23]
American artist Justin Par adapted the aesthetic and philosophy of Nkisi Nkondi into three sculptures entitled 'Nkondi A', 'Nkondi B', and 'Nkondi C', using nails salvaged from utility poles, to create miniature architectural landscapes, in a solo exhibition entitled "Reliquum", at the Center for Visual Arts, in Greensboro, NC, 2012.
In his 2014 solo exhibition, 'AniMystikAktivist,' at the Goodman Gallery, Cape Town (13 December 2014 - 17 January 2015), South African artist Andrew Lamprecht presented a nkondi figure in modern form and drew attention to the potential Christian origins in the Kingdom of Kongo of the form. [24]
In a 2017 exhibit "The Prophet’s Library", African American artist Wesley Clark displayed "Doing for Self", a nkondi interpretation of the American flag. To Clark, this piece promotes reconciliation between the drifting spirituality and tradition of African diaspora and the injustice experienced in African American history. [25]
The 2006 film The Promise Keeper revolves around a life-sized Nkondi figure. In the film the nails represent promises made by those who hammered them into the figure, and the object comes to life at night to punish those who break the promises. [26]
A mojo, in the African-American spiritual practice called Hoodoo, is an amulet consisting of a flannel bag containing one or more magical items. It is a "prayer in a bag", or a spell that can be carried with or on the host's body. Alternative American names for the mojo bag include gris-gris bag, hand, mojo hand, toby, nation sack,conjure hand, lucky hand, conjure bag, juju bag, trick bag, tricken bag, root bag, and jomo. The word mojo also refers to magic and charms. Mojo containers are bags, gourds, bottles, shells, and other containers. The making of mojo bags in Hoodoo is a system of African-American occult magic. The creation of mojo bags is an esoteric system that involves sometimes housing spirits inside of bags for either protection, healing, or harm and to consult with spirits. Other times mojo bags are created to manifest results in a person's life such as good-luck, money or love.
A fetish is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent value, or powers, to an object.
A Simbi is a water and nature spirit in traditional Kongo spirituality, as well as in Hoodoo.
Hoodoo is a set of spiritual practices, traditions, and beliefs that were created by enslaved African Americans in the Southern United States from various traditional African spiritualities, Christianity and elements of indigenous botanical knowledge. Practitioners of Hoodoo are called rootworkers, conjure doctors, conjure man or conjure woman, and root doctors. Regional synonyms for Hoodoo include rootwork and conjure. As a syncretic spiritual system, it also incorporates beliefs from Islam brought over by enslaved West African Muslims, and Spiritualism. Scholars define Hoodoo as a folk religion. It is a syncretic religion between two or more cultural religions, in this case being African indigenous spirituality and Abrahamic religion.
The Kongo people are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others.
Palo, also known as Las Reglas de Congo, is an African diasporic religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th or early 20th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between the traditional Kongo religion of Central Africa, the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity, and Spiritism. Initiates in the religion are termed paleros (male) or paleras (female).
Nkisi or Nkishi are spirits or an object that a spirit inhabits. It is frequently applied to a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa, especially in the Territory of Cabinda that are believed to contain spiritual powers or spirits. The term and its concept have passed with the Atlantic slave trade to the Americas.
The Kingdom of Loango was a pre-colonial African state, during approximately the 16th to 19th centuries in what is now the western part of the Republic of the Congo, Southern Gabon and Cabinda. Situated to the north of the more powerful Kingdom of Kongo, at its height in the 17th century Loango influence extended from Cape St Catherine in the north to almost the mouth of the Congo River.
The culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely varied, reflecting the great diversity and different customs which exist in the country. Congolese culture combines the influence of tradition to the region, but also combines influences from abroad which arrived during the era of colonization and continue to have a strong influence, without destroying the individuality of many tribal customs.
The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. Portuguese left several of their own number and kidnapped a group of Kongo including at least one nobleman, Kala ka Mfusu, taking them to Portugal where they stayed a year, learned Portuguese and were converted to Christianity. The group was returned to Kongo in 1485 and Kala ka Mfusu led a royal mission from Kongo's manikongo, Nzinga a Nkuwu to Portugal. Following their arrival in late 1486 the embassy stayed nearly four years in Lisbon with the monks of Saint John the Baptist. There they studied Christianity and Portuguese with Vicente dos Anjos, and began the start of a Kongolese version of Christianity.
Renee Stout is an American sculptor and contemporary artist known for assemblage artworks dealing with her personal history and African-American heritage. Born in Kansas, raised in Pittsburgh, living in Washington, D.C., and connected through her art to New Orleans, her art reflects this interest in African diasporic culture throughout the United States. Stout was the first American artist to exhibit in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art.
The Beembe are a Bantu people living in southern Congo-Brazzaville, precisely in Bouenza and in the cities of Brazzaville, Dolisie, and Pointe-Noire. It is a Kongo subgroup. The Beembe have some similar customs to the Kongo, which is what makes them a subgroup, but their art is what separates them apart. It is not clear when the Beembe separated from the Kongo but oral tradition suggests that it was some time around the eight century. They migrated Northeast from the Kongo and settled some five hundred kilometers from the capital of the Kingdom of the Kongo. This group was a part of the Kongo Kingdom during its height of power. The Beembe also have subgroups within it such as the Bisi-Nseke, Minkegue, Mmsumbu (Bambumbu), the Mongo, and the Musitu.Beembe society is economically based on agriculture.
John M. Janzen is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. He has been a leading figure on issues of health, illness, and healing in Southern and Central Africa since the 1960. And has dedicated much of his career to providing a better understanding of African society. Janzen’s knowledge of the Kikongo language and his intermittent visits to the lower Congo region between 1964 and 2013 have paved the way for a contextual understanding of the roots of Western Equatorial African approaches to sickness and healing, combining African and Western derived biomedical therapies. Janzen’s research has expanded to include other African countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Sudan. He is the former director of the Kansas African Studies Center at the University of Kansas.
Banganga are spiritual healers or ritual specialists in Kongo religion. These experts also exist across the African diaspora in countries where Kongo and Mbundu people were transported during trans-Atlantic slavery, such as Brazil, the southern United States, Haiti and Cuba.
A face jug is a jug pottery that depicts a face. There are examples in the pottery of ancient Greece, and that of Pre-Columbian America. Early European examples date from the 13th century, and the German stoneware Bartmann jug was a popular later medieval and Renaissance form. Later, the British Toby Jug was a popular form, that became mass-produced. Especially in America, a number of modern craft potters make pieces, mostly continuing the 19th-century African-American slave folk art tradition.
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Robert Visser was a merchant, photographer and collector of ethnographica.
Phemba, also known as Yombe maternity figures, refers to sculptural objects that depict the figures of a mother and child. Phemba are iconic examples of Kongo art and according to Thompson (1981) "reflect the degree to which women are treasured in Kongo culture, not just for their fecundity, but as seers and guardians of the spirit". Kongo societies are matrilineal.
The Kongo cosmogram is a core symbol in Bakongo religion that depicts the physical world, the spiritual world, the Kalûnga line that runs between the two worlds, the sacred river that forms a circle through the two worlds, the four moments of the sun, and the four elements.
Kongo religion encompasses the traditional beliefs of the Bakongo people. Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom of Kongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the traditional religious practices across the Congo Basin. As a result, many other ethnic groups and kingdoms in West-Central Africa, like the Chokwe and Mbundu, adopted elements of Bakongo spirituality.
Mfinda is a spiritual concept of the forest in Kongo religion.
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