Messenger. Protector. Avenger. The multiple roles of this rare Tetela power figure speak to the historic importance of ancestors in this central African society. Sculpted in wood and consecrated with spiritual substances (bishimba), this sculpture served as conduit between the world of the dead and that of the living. In times of danger and communal distress, ancestral spirits (mikishi) appeared in the dreams of the figure’s elderly guardian (nkujna). She would then organize a public procession in which the figure—held by the two poles displayed alongside it—would confront and chase away the malevolent forces plaguing the community.