Losnummer: 37
"Few African sculptures are as iconic as human figures covered in hardware. Such figures, variably called “nail fetish”, “power figure”, or “nkisi nkondi”, were long considered by European observers as quintessential expressions of witchcraft and superstition. They are, in fact, sophisticated medical and legal remedies of the Kongo peoples, a cluster of ethnic groups that live at the mouth of the Congo River in Central Africa. The Kongo made such figures to house spiritual beings that could be activated in order to intervene in human affairs. They were adjured to heal illnesses, settle disputes, take oaths, punish wrongdoers, and protect the community. In its original setting, this sculpture functioned as the vessel for a spirit. It is called nkisi, a term that designates both the ancestor or nature spirit that inhabited it, and the container itself. Nkisi can also be translated as “sacred remedy”. A nkisi-receptacle can take a variety of forms, like a basket, a shell, or a glass bottle. A container in the shape of a human figure with pieces of iron is called a nkisi nkondi, “a hunter spirit-vessel”. Such a power figure used to hunt thieves, bewitchers, and people who had broken taboos or who did not keep their word. Each nail, screw, and blade driven into the wood corresponds with a specific request for action addressed to the nkisi-spirit, whose supernatural powers were invoked and stirred up. The figure now constitutes a notarial record, so to speak, documenting in iron all the pleas, agreements, oaths, curses and demands for vengeance that it was presented with and of which it took care. Works like this resulted from the collective vision of several people rather than a single artist, and changed dramatically in appearance over time. A sculptor carved an empty figure in wood, which a ritual expert subsequently loaded with sacred medicines. These magical substances were located in the square box on the belly and in the charge on top of the head, both sealed in place with resin. Spirit-embedding medicines were necessary to attract and fix a nkisi in the vessel, and often included earth from a grave site. Once “contained”, spirit-admonishing medicines were used to entreat the spirit in a controlled manner so that it could act for the benefit of an individual or a community. Over the course of decades, priests, healers, and users added substances to the figure, to trigger its powers, to seal agreements, or to remind the nkisi what to do and where to go. Today, the figure is covered with shreds of cloth tied to nails or bundled into small packages, and with pierced shells, fruits, seedpods and tops of gourds attached to metal rings or hanging from pieces of rope. The attachments also include different kinds of glass beads, as well as small carved wood pieces, one of which may show a stylized face. The additions are so dense that the figure’s left arm, with the hand resting in the hip, is no longer visible.
All the body poses and attachments of a nkisi nkondi have specific meanings. The raised right arm, which once held a knife, is at once defensive and offensive. The four fingers of the right hand, forming a circle, with the long thumb pointing upwards, refer to the earth and heaven, thus symbolizing the unbreakable bond created by the spirit when activated. The combination of one hand upraised and the other in the hip is common among persons of authority. It signifies the ability to review a situation and act accordingly. The figure’s open mouth indicates, among other things, the need to feed the spirit in order to encourage it to perform a particular action, as well as its eloquence in administering justice. The mirror that covers the abdominal box and the glass eyes, made from imported materials, were meant to enhance the nkisi’s clairvoyance, necessary to perceive the human and the spirit worlds. Many attributes of a power figure make sense because of sound associations and word puns in the Kongo language. For instance, one of the shells attached on the front, which appears also on other nkisi nkondi, has a spiral form. Such a form is called nzinga, a word that evokes luzinga, “long life”. The various seedpods attached to the figure have not yet been identified and we do not know their indigenous names. Yet we can assume that these names, too, reveal some desired outcome.
This nineteenth-century nkisi nkondi, with its exceptionally dense and well-preserved attachments, belonged to the Belgian botanist and folklorist Jean Chalon (1846-1921). He mentioned it in a publication from 1920. The power figure has not been altered since it left Africa. The countless additions testify to its long-lasting success as a protective guardian and punitive hunter."
Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers
Provenienz
Belgian botanist and folklorist Jean Chalon (1846-1921).
Literaturhinweise
Published in CHALON, Jean. 1920." Fétiches, idoles et amulettes". S. Servais: Jean Chalon. Volume 1, p. 12 (no image)
Literature LEHUARD, Raoul. 1980. Fétiches à clous du Bas-Zaïre. Arnouville: Arts d’Afrique noire. MACGAFFEY, Wyatt. 1993. “The Eyes of Understanding: Kongo Minkisi”, pp. 18-103 in Astonishment and Power, W. MacGaffey and M. Harris. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press. THOMPSON, Robert Farris. 2002. “La gestuelle kôngo”, pp. 23-129 in Le geste kôngo, ed. C. Falgayrettes-Leveau. Paris: Éditions Dapper.
 |
