Artwork Page for Power figure (nkisi)

Details / Information for Power figure (nkisi)

Power figure (nkisi)

late 1800s-early 1900s

Africa, Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo-style maker

Medium
Wood, metalized glass, organic materials (including resin), feathers, plant fibers, iron, and copper alloy
Measurements
Overall: 34 x 9.5 x 25 cm (13 3/8 x 3 3/4 x 9 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2010.439
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Did You Know?

This is one of two tallest in the collection of spiritual figurines loaded with gunpowder to shoot at witches: nduda, or “night guns.”

Description

One of seven minkisi figures previously in the René and Odette Delenne collection, this object contained medicines in which an ancestral spirit was believed to reside. This figure is one of the two tallest in the collection. Feathers of a bird of prey adorn its head, with two small guns pointing upward and a third hanging down. It had belonged to “the sorcerer of Louboulou.”
A weathered, dark-brown wood sculpture depicts a standing figure with long gray feathers sprouting from a cylindrical hat. Large white eyes and a wide nose dominate the face. Twine around the neck supports a large, circular mass over the torso with a dark rectangle at its center. Short arms extend from the body, and the figure stands on a rectangular base. The surface is textured with a tan, earth-like crust.

Power figure (nkisi)

late 1800s-early 1900s

Africa, Central Africa, Republic of the Congo, Kongo-style maker

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