Power Figure: Kneeling Female with Serpents and Secondary Figures (Nkisi)

The torso of this kneeling female figure is a hollowed receptacle; the interior is exposed from the back, where a large rectangular panel is now missing. Once filled with consecrated matter by the priest who used it in his practice, it was likely deliberately emptied of that content before it was collected during an expedition sponsored by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society. In this highly original composition, the woman supports a miniature figure seated on her right knee who drinks from a ritual vessel she holds to its mouth with her left hand. Serpents extend from the base of her buttocks and up the length of her back and continue over the crown of her head to devour the tips of two horn-like tresses of hair. The dramatic arc likely represents a force known as Mbumba evoked by healers and diviners for treatment of physical dysfunction and to further the social ambitions of their clients. The interaction of this woman and the sprite-like appendages is not that of a mother and her children but rather a priestess engaged with mystical forces.