Art and Oracle: A Scholarly Resource of African and Rituals of Divination | Explore & Learn

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28. Divination Whistle: Monkey (Nsiba)
Vili, Mayumba, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Wood, antelope horn, fiber; L. 29 cm (11 3/8 in.)
19th century
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Museum für Völkerkunde
III C 717a-c

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28. Divination Whistle: Monkey (Nsiba)

usic often plays an essential role as a catalyst for ritual processes. Exquisitely refined miniature whistles (nsiba) were part of a complex of "medicines" operated by a diviner according to specific procedures in order to achieve magical results. The combined appeal of their visual form and lyrical call activated a spiritual force invested with power over some aspect of human experience.

The name nsiba is a combination of nsia, a species of antelope (Silvicapa) from which the horn is taken, and the verb siba, which describes these whistles' role as instruments that invoke an nkisi, the spirit addressed by the diviner.1 Antelope-horn whistles topped by finely carved miniature sculptures were made and used in many different central African cultures.2 The miniature sculptures exist in a variety of figurative, zoomorphic, and abstract geometric forms rendered in many individual styles. They are 10 to 20 centimeters high, with conical holes at the base into which the pointed end of the horn fits, reinforced by a string threaded through a hole near the pointed end and a vertical hole in the sculpture. Occasionally, as in this instance, two sculptures are attached to the same string.3

Nsiba adorned in this elaborate manner were never carried by ordinary people, only by prominent members of the community such as healer-diviners and possibly village chiefs.4 They were not prestige artifacts, however, but rather were conceived as "medicines" prescribed by a particular nkisi and utilized in rituals performed to combat witchcraft or to heal the sick. Ultimately such works performed a dual role as signal whistles used to hunt and as spirit intermediaries for diviners (banganga). These activities complement each other metaphorically—just as a hunter stalks his prey, so does a diviner track down criminals, sorcerers, and other sources of illness, death, and suffering.5

Animal imagery associated with nsiba includes antelopes, monkeys, dogs, and birds. It appears that many of the subjects of the carvings illustrate proverbs that were potent in their own right. The two carved figures accompanying the whistle shown here both relate to a diviner's vocation. In one, the artist captures the agility of a monkey balanced on a branch and leaning forward. It has been proposed that the monkey is probably the long-tailed mutadi, whose name means "one who spies out," a metaphorical reference to the diviner.6 The other, a Janus-faced cylinder, similarly suggests the diviner's powers of observation, which allow him to gaze simultaneously into visible and invisible worlds.

1. Söderberg 1966, p. 8; Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 58.

2. Söderberg 1966, p. 6.

3. Ibid., p. 7.

4. Astonishment and Power 1993, p. 56.

5. Söderberg 1966, p. 24.

6. Wyatt MacGaffey, entry for cat. no. 73 in Kings of Africa 1992, p. 311.