Tribal Art

African magic-religious objects.
Consecrated by the priest nganga, this type of African clan sculpture has a magical charge lodged in the glass-sealed ventral cavity. The statue also carries, on the back, a kind of swaddled bundle.
The charge or bilongo consisted of various ingredients from the natural environment including red clay, red wood powder tukula , white clay pembe... , but possibly human fragments such as teeth, nails, hair. The arms are truncated. This fetish of conjuration was thus supposed to influence the health, prosperity, enemies of its holder. The headdress is characteristic of the statuary of Beembe and Yombe, other tribes of the Kongo group. Among the Kongo, the specialist named nganga ,was in charge of rituals by activating a spiritual force with a nkondi (pl. nkissi). The term nkisi was later used to refer to the notions of "sacred" or "divine." These protective fetishes for homes are among the most prized in Africa. The Nkisi plays the role of mediator between gods and men, a bulwark against disease and bad luck. If the more modest figures belong to an individual or a family, the large specimens, nkonde , nkondi , are the collective property of an entire village.
"Le Geste Kongo" ed. Musée Dapper