Unidentified Artist
Date:
19th Century
Medium:
Wood, iron, mirrored glass, earth, encrustation, fiber
Size:
Depth: 6 1/2 ”
Width: 7 1/16″
Height: 12 3/8″

The wide eyes of these sculptures suggest a living presence within. In the Kingdom of Kongo, men and women sought healing and protection from diviners who worked with powerful objects called minkisi (singular: nkisi). These works took many shapes—from cloth bundles to clay pots to human and animal figures—but all channeled the power of spiritual forces that were invited to live inside the container that had been made for them.

During the era of the transatlantic slave trade— which saw as many as three million Kongolese citizens kidnapped and enslaved between 1500 and 1900—more and more minkisi began to take human form. These works come from the 19th century or shortly thereafter. Their human form and pose reflect the anxieties of this traumatic time in African history.

Gift of Alan Wurtzburger BMA 1954.145.66

Other Kinds of Nkisi

Transcript

[Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch] The two nkisi on either side of this figure with the nails driven into it, have some similar elements. Both of them include the same sort of ingredients that are intended to invite a spirit into them. The noble woman seated has a mirrored cavity on her stomach that includes that sort of material. And the figure with his head tilted back and the large projecting, what looks like a hat, that’s where the pack of materials is located on that nkisi figure. And not all nkisi are woken by nailing a piece of metal into them.
And so the noble woman who is seated with her mirrored eyes turned slightly to her left, might’ve been woken merely by prayers, and that might be the same for the figure on the other side as well.