Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Arnold Ridyard, engineer of the Elder Dempster and Company liner the SS Niger, obtained this Mangaaka figure through his Hatton & Cookson agent Oscar Sonnenberg. In a letter Sonnenberg describes the role Mangaaka played as a deterrent for crime:
When a Native has been robbed, he assists the priest of this fetish and begs him to allow him to drive a nail into the image against the known or unknown thief. He has to pay a small sum to the priest for this. During the art of driving the nail into the images, he not only asks the Mangaka to punish the thief but all his family as well. . . . The priest has great powers over the Natives and generally frightens the criminal to denounce himself. . . . Robbery amongst themselves therefore is a rare thing. . . . The Portuguese government has removed by force some of these fetishes.
When a Native has been robbed, he assists the priest of this fetish and begs him to allow him to drive a nail into the image against the known or unknown thief. He has to pay a small sum to the priest for this. During the art of driving the nail into the images, he not only asks the Mangaka to punish the thief but all his family as well. . . . The priest has great powers over the Natives and generally frightens the criminal to denounce himself. . . . Robbery amongst themselves therefore is a rare thing. . . . The Portuguese government has removed by force some of these fetishes.
Artwork Details
- Title: Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka)
- Date: 19th century, inventoried 1900
- Geography: Cabinda, Angola, Chiloango River region
- Culture: Kongo peoples; Yombe group
- Medium: Wood, iron, resin, ceramic, plant fiber, textile, pigment
- Dimensions: H. 44 1/8 in. (112 cm), W. 18 1/8 in. (46 cm), D. 9 in. (23 cm)
- Classification: Wood-Sculpture
- Credit Line: National Museums Liverpool, World Museum
- Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing