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9. Nkisi Nkondi: Mangaaka
Yombe, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Wood, metal, shells
H. 121 cm (47 1Ú2 in.)
ca. 1880–1910
Private collection

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9. Nkisi Nkondi: Mangaaka

he Yombe are a subgroup within the extended Kongo culture. In Kongo cosmology, existence is regarded as an infinite continuum of a cyclical nature.1 The universe consists of a bipartite division between "this world" and the "land of the dead," which are separated by a body of water, kalunga. Across this barrier an inversion occurs, so that at the rising and the setting of the sun, the living and the dead exchange day and night.2 Within these parallel realms of experience, existence unfolds in a relationship that is largely, though not entirely, symmetrical and complementary. It is the responsibility of leaders to mediate whatever conflicts arise.

In Kongo culture, the highly complex, sophisticated instruments known as minkisi (singular, nkisi) have afforded diviners extraordinary powers of perception. Minkisi are composed and operated by the Kongo intelligentsia, who respond to physical and social crises by striving to restore spiritual equilibrium.3 These specialists, including diviners, healers, and adjudicators, have been compared to Western scientists.4 Through their accrued wisdom, specific types of minkisi have been designed to address particular needs.

At the core of every material nkisi is a spiritual force that has been selected and induced to submit to some degree of human control,5 and this force defines an nkisi's character. In an nkisi deployed for divination, the force is usually an ancestral spirit and is contained in a receptacle that may range from a carefully sculpted wooden figure to a visually unremarkable object such as an ordinary clay pot, a snail shell, or raffia cloth.6 Minkondi (singular, nkondi, meaning "hunter") are an especially powerful category of minkisi, primarily associated with moral revelation. An nkisi nkondi's primary purpose was to pursue and expose witches, thieves, adulterers, and other wrongdoers.7 Ritual experts known as banganga (singular, nganga) equipped themselves with minkondi to expose the perpetrators of antisocial acts on behalf of clients who had been victimized.

This particular figure is an unusually eloquent example of a distinct genre of minkondi known as Mangaaka, created to house the greatest spirit of the Mayombe region.8 Here, Mangaaka's power was given visual form by a sculptor in the Chiloango River basin between 1880 and 1910. Art historian Ezio Bassani has identified this work as belonging to a group of more than a dozen related monumental sculptures attributed to the combined efforts of that Chiloango River master's workshop and an nganga.9 Through this collaboration, these specialists developed a series of visual and conceptual metaphors that determined the figure's appearance and the internal and external materials selected to empower it. In Kongo culture, however, the nganga was considered its primary author.10

Among Mangaaka's most expressive features are its posture, expression, and scale. This figure's physiognomy and stance convey a sense of physical power and heightened awareness. Its boldly conceived eyes, semicircles cut from white shells that have been affixed to the wooden surface, are accentuated by dark pupils and prominent carved eyebrows; and its parted lips reveal sharply filed teeth. The head is crowned by a cap defined by an incised pattern of interlace with a knoblike projection at the apex. This special headdress of leadership, mpu, is associated with the authority and power of chiefs and priests in ancient Kongo culture.11

The figure's broad, rounded shoulders form a continuous curved arch extending downward and outward, with arms bent at the elbows and hands resting on the hips. A finely rendered plaited cord is knotted around each of its muscular upper arms. Such woven fiber bands, nsunga, were prescribed by an nganga as a protective barrier to shield the wearer from harm.12 In the middle of the abdomen, a white cowrie shell is placed at the center of a protruding mass. At the base, its relatively short legs rest on blocks, contributing to the figure's towering presence. The fact that the figure's head and upper body are thrust slightly forward and its lips are parted suggests that it is portrayed forcefully delivering a statement before an audience. It has been proposed that the figure's posture and gesture convey an attitude of heightened awareness, alertness, and extreme assertiveness, and a spirit of challenge.13

Such works are carved from Canarium scheinfurthii, a tree that is sacred for minkondi.14 The definition that is given here to Mangaaka's face and body is relatively rare. Often the bodies of figural minkisi are much more roughly hewn, in anticipation of their serving as the site for empowering matter. Once they leave the carver's hand, a second creative phase begins, directed by the diviner.15 His contributions physically alter the work, adding internally and externally such materials as white clay or grave dirt, associated with the realm of the ancestors and their clairvoyance, or materials drawn from animal and plant sources because their names suggest attributes that have the potential to enhance the nkisi's performance. While some of these "medicines" serve to attract the spirit that activates the nkisi, other types direct it to focus on and address potential crises.16

The concentration of empowering additions to this work's abdomen is consistent with other sculptures attributed to the same workshop. Wyatt MacGaffey has commented on the significance of this body part by noting that myooyo, the term for "belly," also means "life."17 In Kongo society, the power that enables individuals to accomplish extraordinary feats is kundu, an organ situated within the stomach. When controlled for personal gain, the kundu is perceived as harmful to others, whereas leaders, elders, and diviners may control its power for some greater good.18 Robert Farris Thompson suggests that the protrusion of Mangaaka's abdomen accented with a shell alludes to kundu and to the threshold into a parallel spiritual realm inhabited by the dead.19 Originally, this mediating role would have been further enhanced by rubbing the entire surface of the figure with red clay.20

In contrast to the Western idea that an artist's finished work is to be regarded as unalterable, here nails, spikes, and other iron elements were later inserted around the figure's chin, into its shoulders, and over much of its torso—additions that inevitably have a powerful effect on a viewer's experience of the work. They were not part of the original design but were added over a period of time. A diviner would use the power figure for different consultations, adding to it and altering it according to the requirement of the case. Since Christian images of various martyred saints, studded with piercing elements, were introduced into the region from Portugal beginning in the sixteenth century, it has been suggested that Kongo culture may have drawn upon its experience of that visual vocabulary.21

In analyzing a related work, Thompson distinguished three forms of iron hardware that make up its bristling armature, suggesting that each of them reflects and physically represents a particular purpose.22 This would correspond to the exacting precision with which the nkisi's internal contents are selected. Due to the preponderance of rectangular-shaped blades (mbeezi), this work appears to have been used primarily for important matters of civil jurisprudence. At the turn of the century, it was documented that nails driven into minkondi provided a means of determining an accused person's culpability. The suspect would be directed to remove the nail with his or her hands, and if he/she failed, this was interpreted as a sign of guilt.23 Another use for nails driven into sculpture was to seal agreements with a vow.24

1. MacGaffey 1986, p. 44.

2. Ibid., p. 43.

3. Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 60.

4. MacGaffey 1986, p. 89.

5. MacGaffey 1991, p. 4.

6. Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 60.

7. Ibid., p. 76.

8. Thompson 1978, p. 219.

9. Ezio Bassani, "Kongo Nail Fetishes from the Chiloango River Area," African Arts 10, no. 3 (1977), pp. 36–40, 88.

10. Zdenka Volavkova, "Nkisi Figures of the Lower Congo," African Arts 5, no. 2 (1972), p. 57.

11. Thompson 1978, pp. 207, 214.

12. Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 44.

13. Thompson 1978, p. 215; Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 44.

14. Thompson 1978, p. 208.

15. Volavkova, "Nkisi Figures," p. 57.

16. In its present state, this figure's exterior appears relatively bare compared to its counterparts in the collections of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium. Though structurally very similar, these other works feature a massive clay-and-fiber beard, which extends down from the perimeter of the chin, and a skirt composed of a series of fiber bundles tied to the hips, which rests on the feet. This garment, known as a makolo, was worn by the ritual experts associated with minkondi. Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 42.

17. Ibid., p. 43.

18. MacGaffey 1986, p. 168.

19. Thompson 1978, p. 219.

20. Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 44.

21. Volavkova, "Nkisi Figures," pp. 55, 56.

22. Thompson 1978, p. 216.

23. Ibid., p. 212.

24. Ibid., p. 216.