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Power Figure: Standing Female Figure with Child (Wife of Mabyaala?) (Nkisi)

Kongo peoples; Vili group

19th century, inventoried 1885

Not on view

When a Dutch trader acquired this mother and child figure in Cabinda in the nineteenth century, it was documented as casi mabialla, the spouse of Mabyaala (Mabialla), one of the most powerful and revered coastal minkisi. The “Wife of Mabyaala” features cavities for medicine, or bilongo, in the stomach, back, and crown of the head. Her identity as a married woman is reflected in the prominence of the infant supported on her left hip who rests its hand on her breast. Their heads feature the fiber cap that is among the foremost attributes of an invested chief known as an ngunda. A long narrow band of cloth that extends from the crown has been related to an umbilical cord and to a chief’s belt.

Power Figure: Standing Female Figure with Child (Wife of Mabyaala?) (Nkisi), Wood, beads, glass, fiber, copper, resin, Kongo peoples; Vili group — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Power Figure: Standing Female Figure with Child (Wife of Mabyaala?) (Nkisi), Wood, beads, glass, fiber, copper, resin, Kongo peoples; Vili group

Power Figure: Standing Female Figure with Child (Wife of Mabyaala?) (Nkisi), Wood, beads, glass, fiber, copper, resin, Kongo peoples; Vili group

Power Figure: Standing Female Figure with Child (Wife of Mabyaala?) (Nkisi), Wood, beads, glass, fiber, copper, resin, Kongo peoples; Vili group

Power Figure: Standing Female Figure with Child (Wife of Mabyaala?) (Nkisi), Wood, beads, glass, fiber, copper, resin, Kongo peoples; Vili group

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This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Power Figure: Standing Female Figure with Child (Wife of Mabyaala?) (Nkisi)

Date: 19th century, inventoried 1885

Geography: Cabinda, Angola, Loango Coast

Culture: Kongo peoples; Vili group

Medium: Wood, beads, glass, fiber, copper, resin

Dimensions: H. 15 1/4 (38.5 cm), W. 5 3/4 (14.6 cm), D. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm)

Classification: Wood-Sculpture

Credit Line: Collection Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, Leiden, Netherlands

The Met

The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met

The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.