Cleveland Museum of Art

Power figure (nkisi)

Date

late 1800s-early 1900s

Medium

Wood, organic materials (including resin), iron, reed, tooth, seashell or glass beads, and possibly plastic

Culture

Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo people

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

One of seven anthropomorphic figurines, these minkisi contained medicines in which an ancestral spirit was believed to reside. Minkisi were objects of communal use; if conflict arose between two citizens, the Nkisi figure, along with the nganga (ritual leader) helped resolve the dispute. This small figure belonged to “the sorcerer of Loango,” chief of all sorcerers of that region (a province and port in West Central Africa).

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