Tribal Art

Kongo fetishes are famous in African art.
This is a sculpture of a two-headed dog whose eyes are encrusted with pieces of glass. The body which separates the two heads is, on both sides of leather socks, covered with nails. In the center, the cavity is inhabited by the magic charge. The Kongo use this type of object to try to resolve a difficulty and intimidate or repel the person who caused it.
"These sculptures, anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, have long been classified as vengeful spirits, but their function is much more ambivalent. It is when the nganga completes the sculptor's work by driving the nails into the nkonde that it acquires its magical charge. His action is not secret; on the contrary, his mission is public. Once the evils and their culprit are determined, the nganga activates the force of the nkonde by driving a nail or an iron blade, witnesses of the request and especially of the agreement concluded between the nganga and his client...often considered as malevolent, these statuettes have for essential role to restore the social harmony, disturbed by the harmful intentions of a third party." The ABCdaire of African Arts. Flammarion