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18. Njinda Divination Figure (Ngombo)
Eastern Pende, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Wood, shells, horn, cloth, beads; H. 102.3 cm (40 1/4 in.)
20th century
The University of Iowa Museum of Art, The Stanley Collection
X1986.505

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18. Njinda Divination Figure (Ngombo)

his wild apparition was intended to command attention by shocking audiences with its fearful appearance. Its complex character as an image derives from its ability to simultaneously unsettle and reassure through its suggestion of unparalleled spiritual might. Its efficacy as a divinatory tool served to safeguard Pende communities from sorcery being practiced against them and other dangers.

According to Pende cosmology, Maweze (God) created a world divided into two parallel realms of existence—the realm of the living and, beneath it, "the other world" (kalunga)—with life conceived of as a cyclical journey between the two. Responsibility for overseeing the prosperity of the living was delegated to the dead, who monitor human reproduction, agriculture, and the hunt. In order to facilitate communication between the two realms, the ancestors designate "transistors," known as mahamba (singular, hamba), who provide the living with access to the omniscience of the collective dead.1

When a family suffers an unusually high rate of illness, death, or other such serious problems, the dead will sometimes intercede in order to assist them in their time of need by divinely ordaining a member to serve as their mouthpiece. More typically, though, problems are addressed through professional diviners (nganga ngombo), usually male, who have pursued the study of wanga, the manipulation of physical and metaphysical forces for personal advantage. Their efforts to obtain insights are not facilitated by the ancestors but rather through a variety of charged instruments, ngombo, which are continually being developed. Nganga ngombo are entrepreneurs who establish lucrative careers based on their reputation for using their influence toward essentially positive ends and for successfully launching new strategies. Within this highly competitive profession, a premium is placed on attracting clients through up-to-date, innovative practices. They are therefore willing to experiment with different methods and frequently try techniques devised by foreign specialists, such as friction oracles, Chokwe divination baskets, and the practices of various gynecological cults.

Among the techniques appropriated from foreign sources by Pende diviners was njinda (or nginda), thought to be of Lele origin and introduced to the Pende by the Wongo during the 1920s. It appears that the power of this type of ngombo was harnessed by the Pende as a weapon to resist colonialism. Under Belgian rule, subjugation of the peoples of the Congo was especially brutal and led to great social turmoil.2 It has been suggested that the Pende's vulnerability to a ruthless foreign power led them to perceive themselves as victims of an enormous sorcery attack. In order to reassert control over their society, they sought to realign themselves with the ancestor world. They could not hope to prevail against such hostile forces without spiritual and psychological reinforcement, and thus a number of different antisorcery movements arose, including Njinda.3 Such was an njinda figure's supposed potency that in Pende communities it was displayed to counter the tyranny of Belgian colonial rule, which posed a critical threat to them. According to some accounts, an njinda figure was placed outside the village in order to neutralize antisocial practices within. Others suggest that it was kept near the buried skull of an ancestor to facilitate communication with the dead and that it circulated at night in search of sorcerers harmful to the well-being of the community. Some report that initiated specialists would carry it through the village until it stopped in front of the house of an accused sorcerer. The accused had the choice of drinking a poison to affirm his or her innocence. Individuals who were wrongly accused would presumably vomit up the poison and survive the ordeal. Sorcerers who confessed were given the option of discarding all their "medicines" and power figures.

Five surviving examples of this genre of ngombo are known. All five are tall, highly expressionistic figures with protruding eyes and breasts, an antelope horn emerging vertically from the head, and short, stout, sturdy legs. The arms are joined to the torso at the hips, and thick ropes tied around the middle of the arms hang down on the floor. The figure wears a short fiber skirt, and there is usually a tortoise shell attached near the navel and a coil of beads around the neck. This particular njinda figure is a towering presence, its elongated torso contrasting emphatically with its blocky diminutive legs, and appears to sway as a result of a pronounced lean toward its left side. The face is defined as a flat planar surface against which the conical volumes of the eyes and triangular nose project dramatically, with a faintly incised line for the mouth.

In Pende society, ritual works associated with chiefly authority favor female imagery, since women are associated with loyalty and obedience. The feminine personification of the formidable forces invested in the njinda figure reassures members of the community that those forces are being harnessed toward positive ends. At the same time, her protruding eyes denote exceptional vigilance and appear to be bulging with unrestrained anger and violence, intended to intimidate viewers from approaching. Both the antelope horn and the emphasis given the nose (through the use of sculpted relief and a contrasting color) relate to Pende conceptions of sorcery as something that exudes an odor discernible by diviners; traditionally, such horns packed with "medicines" enhanced a diviner's ability to distinguish criminal activity and prescribe the appropriate neutralizing agents. The minimal representation of the figure's mouth is modeled after images of chiefs in which a suppressed mouth suggests measured and wise counsel.

The prominent presence of the antelope horn and the tortoise shell are overt references to the manipulation of wanga. These two components were packed with substances that activated the figure—earth and grave dirt enriched with "medicines" composed of animal and plant matter. Firm control of these forces by the nganga ngombo is alluded to by the coils of braided raffia rope tied to the figure's forearms, the same material used for the figure's coiffure and skirt. Raffia is associated with the wild bush, the domain of great hunters and ritual specialists.

Despite its seemingly unwieldy scale, the njinda figure was kinetically manipulated by the ropes tied around its arms, and it would indicate responses to questions through shifts in its position. Its caretakers posed questions in a form that included their own diagnosis of the situation under investigation and a possible answer; the figure would indicate its confirmation or negation of each one by leaning to one side or the other. Some accounts suggest that it oscillated—tipped back and forth and vibrated—or kept still to signal its response to questions about minor matters, and decisively fell to one side or the other in reaction to a question of major concern.

It is said that during a 1931 Pende rebellion against Belgian colonial rule, one of the leaders, Matemu a Kelenge, used this form of ngombo to consult the dead and to provide Pende soldiers with protection.4 Despite brutal colonial retaliations against the Pende, some njinda figures survived after 1931. The increasingly martial character of such works is especially apparent in an example at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which features a double-sided sword (nkusa) and bells.5 This kind of sword had been primarily known as a key insignia of chiefly office; however, during the rebellion of 1931 it became emblematic of a just war sanctioned by the ancestors. Even as some ngombo instruments were discarded in favor of newer, innovative models capable of addressing more contemporary concerns, effective forms could be refined and customized to respond to specific crises.

1. This and all other information on Pende culture presented in the following paragraphs is based on a forthcoming essay on Pende divination by Z. S. Strother, "Smells and Bells: The Role of Skepticism in Pende Divination," in Pemberton 2000.

2. In 1884 Europe's leadership granted Belgium's constitutional monarch, King Leopold II, the authority to administer the Congo basin as his private domain, the Congo Free State. Brutal measures were pursued to defeat the region's independent African peoples and to exploit local resources and labor. When this territory was annexed to the Belgian state in 1908 as the Belgian Congo, local peoples continued to be subjected to severe political repression and economic exploitation, and for the next thirty years revolts against Belgian authority occurred throughout the colony.

3. Sikitele Gize a Sumbula, cited in Strother, "Smells and Bells," in Pemberton 2000.

4. De Sousberghe 1959, pp. 150–51, cited in ibid.

5. This njinda figure (acc. no. 90.2/2957) was acquired in 1933 by G. Capresse, a journalist.