minkisi figures -...
TRANSCRIPT
MINKISI FIGURES
OF THE CONGO
CHRISTOPHER MP CHUHNA
Theory and Method Material Culture Study
Dr. McCleary
Spring 2016
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Introduction
Spiritual power in the Western world had a divide between the good and the bad, the
black and white views of spiritual power. For the KiKongo language of the BaKongo people
there was no word that easily translated into religion, instead they practiced witchcraft and
magic. In BaKongo spiritual power structure there was no definitive separation between good
and bad magic and witchcraft. The spiritual powers were neutral, but the practitioners
manipulated the powers to be good or bad depending on their usage of the power. A
practitioner using their spiritual powers for the good of the community was on the righteous
side of the spectrum, even if their actions were harming another person. A practitioner that
started using their spiritual powers for personal gains that inflicted harm on another person and
not to help the community, whether it was for good intentions or bad intentions, would have
fallen on the bad side of the spectrum. The power came from the land of the dead, and the land
of the dead was a mirror of the living world. For the Kongolese there was not any distinction
between the land of the dead and the land of the living. Rivers and bodies of water were how a
spiritual practitioner could communicate with the land of the dead. The word power in
KiKongo translated to kindoki, and kindoki was the center of the Nganga’s spiritual powers.
Kindoki was important for the chiefs, because if they had a large amount of kindoki they
would be an effective leader and have success at his ventures.
The power that resided in the land of the dead was harness able through the minkisi
(sing. Nkisi) figure of the Congo. The minkisi came in various shapes, sizes, and physical
appearance, and they each varied in the amount of power they contained. The figures were
normally male figures, and in some cases the figures were female. The male figures were
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stronger and the female figures were less powerful. The figures had human form and were
wooden carvings and in some cases bodies would have a covering. These coverings were to
help strengthen the minkisi and to help aid in their desired tasks. The figures would also get
infused with the three domains of nature come together. Minerals, vegetables, and animal
matter are the three domains of nature, and these items helped strengthen the figure and the
residing spirit’s power. Once the infusing of the three domains of nature was complete they
would get a covering of some kind of resin. Then covered with a mirror, which strengthened
the minkisi access to the spirit world. The figure would then go through a ceremony that
activated it, and after the activation ceremony the figure was ready for its intended task. With
an nkisi ready for use it would enter into the society ready to interact with the community
members. The minkisi had great influence in Congolese world, and they had active roles in the
societies. What was the role of the Minkisi figures in the Congolese world and then how were
they viewed in the Western world during the 20th century?
Historiography Section
Many of the scholar works dealing with the minkisi figures were from an art historian
view and examine them from a stylist view point. Most of the secondary sources about the
minkisi were from non-African writers such as Reverend J.H. Maw, who was a missionary
sometime before 1935. Reverend Maw commissioned different objects from the Congo and
wrote about the objects’ purpose in the society. There were a few primary sources written from
the African voice, one such source was the K.E. Laman manuscripts, written by the BaKongo
people and collected by Laman. There were writings dealing with the creation and uses of the
minkisi figures. American museums have a large collection of minkisi figures in their African
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history collections, which allow scholarly writers to examine the minkisi in person and through
high resolution photographs.
Much of the scholarly work done dealt with the making and purpose of the minkisi.
Scholars like Zdenka Volavkova, in her article Nkisi Figures of the Lower Congo1, discussed
the several reasons of creating the minkisi figures and how the completed design of the figure
was not always an effect of the artesian. Other than the carving of the figure the artesian did
not have much say in the figure’s appearance. The artesian often would not know the usage of
the nkisi. After the carving of the nkisi the influence of the design was up to the Nganga. The
figure took on different characterizes that the Nganga felt were necessary so that the nkisi
could carry out its intended purpose. Volavkova also discusses the nkisi nkondi, she explains
the activation process of the nkondi figures. Volavkova also examines the morphological
features of the nkondi, which would be the pose and gestures of the figures that have
traditional symbolic meaning. Volavkova ends that article discussing the influences of the
Europeans and how it did affect some of the Kongolese art. Despite the European influences,
the minkisi did not go through any fundamental changes, remaining an African influenced
object.
Explores and missionaries examined the minkisi figures for more than three hundred
years. Westerners collected minkisi figures for hundreds of years, and the collecting was for
both personal and museum collections. Betty Gubert examines minkisi figures in her
article Three Songye and Kongo Figures2, these figures that Gubert examined were from a
collection at the Schomburg Center for research Libraries of the New York Public Library.
1 Zdenka Volavkova, “Nkisi Figures of the Lower Congo”, African Arts 5, 2 (1972): 52-84.
2 Betty Gubert, “Three Songye and Kongo Figures”, African Arts 15, 1 (1981): 46–88.
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Gubert wrote about some of the differences that the minkisi figures can have, and how there
were different types of minkisi figures. She also observes that the Ngangas needed knowledge
of botany, psychology and theatrical arts, so to endow the figure with the power to give the
desired results. She gives details about the three realms of nature that going into the stomach
hole of the nkisi figure. The first of these elements was clay from a river bed where the sprints
resided. The other elements are herbs and roots (that can either kill or cure) and animal parts
(parts that help the animal survive or communicate strength or power). If the nkisi is not
having the desired effect it means that either the nkisi is in need of a renewal ritual or it could
mean that there is a stronger nkisi that is overpowering it.
Scholars examining the minkisi figures have looked at the stylist and visual aspects of
the figure, but few have examined deeper into their roles in the societies. Wyatt MacGaffey has
peered past the aesthetic of the minkisi figures and examined the purposes of the minkisi in the
Kongolese societies. MacGaffey did not only examine the minkisi figures, he also uses the
K.E. Lamam manuscripts to assist his arguments. In Fetishism revisited: Kongo “nkisi” in
Sociological Perspective3 MacGaffey examined the relationship between the figures, spirits
and practitioners. He used the Lamam manuscripts to understand the sociological perspective
of the minkisi figures on the Kongolese society. MacGaffey discusses the medicines that went
into the stomach area of the nkisi, and he explains how each nkisi had its own medicine recipe.
Making each nkisi figure was for different reasons and practitioners, so the recipes would be
different. MacGaffey discusses that the power of the minkisi came from the spirit world, but
there were living people as well that had considerable amounts of power (kindoki). The living
that had power were the either living elders or chiefs. MacGaffey examines the fundamental
3 Wyatt MacGaffey, “Fetishism revisited: Kongo “nkisi” in Sociological Perspective”, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 47, 2 (1977): 172-184
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concepts between the figure and the spirits that inhabit them. The figures were the visible
containers that the spirits could enter into social interactions. In The Personhood of Ritual
Objects: Kongo “Minkisi”4 MacGaffey explains how minkisi figures acquired a sense of
personhood within the communities it resided in. MacGaffey explained that the idea of an
inanimate object having a sense of personhood was not just a Kongolese idea. He drew
parallels to Medieval European relics of the saints, and how these objects took on a living
persona of its own. MacGaffey uses the beginning of his work to explain what the nkondi’s
roles and purposes. He describes the different ways that the Kongolese endowed their nkisi
with a persona, and he uses the Lamam manuscripts to demonstrate how the Kongolese viewed
the nkisi figure as a person. The nkisi nkondi was a vessel for the spirit that resided within it,
and by driving an iron spike into the body it angered the spirit. This action caused the enraged
spirit to seek vengeance against the wrongdoer. MacGaffey concluded that the personhood of
the Minkisi in the Congo was not an exclusively Congolese phenomenon but also occurred in
European culture. The personification method of the minkisi was an exclusively Congolese
phenomenon.
The Congolese world of magic and witchcraft deals with spiritual objects that contained
large amounts of power and social influence. An artesian created each nkisi, and the owner
would buy and take the figure to an Nganga. The Nganga performed a ritual ceremony and
endowed the nkisi figure with a spirit. Once the spirit was inside the figure the figure became a
vessel for the spirit, and the visible vessel for the spirit’s social interactions. The minkisi
figures were a popular topic for African art historians, who studied the aesthetic traits of the
4 Wyatt MacGaffey, “The personhood of Ritual Objects: Kongo “minkisi””, Etnofoor 3, 1 (1990): 45-61.
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figures. The creation of the minkisi figures and their different visual attributes were a topic of
examination by African art historians.
This paper will examine two different kinds of minkisi and elaborate on what their roles
were within the Congolese communities they resided in. It will also discuss how the westerns
in the 20th century viewed the minkisi during the Harlem Renaissance. This paper will do this
by using both written and physical primary sources. The written primary sources are the K.E.
Lamam manuscripts and the descriptions Reverend J.H. Maw collected during his six years in
the Congo. The physical primary sources are two nkisi figures, one of which is in the
collections of the Carlos Museum at Emory University and the other is in the collection at the
Brooklyn Museum in New York.
The Primary Sources: What their Roles and Uses in the Congo
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Figure 1 is of an nkisi nkondi figure from the Congo region. The figure is a male statue
that was stuck with 47 pieces of metal (nails and knives). The pieces of metal are of various
sizes and dimensions, but they are all rusty. Three of the pieces of metal have things attached
to them, the objects vary from white to black to red (see Figure 3). There is a mirror in the
navel/stomach area that is dirty and no longer shiny. The arms run out along the body and the
hands are connected to the figures hips. The head has headdress that four flat parts that stick
above the head, and the mouth is open with teeth and tongue showing. There are bracelets
around each bicep. The figure also seems like it was
painted or stained white on most of its body. The
figure’s
measurem
ents are 33 7/8” x 13 ¾” x 11”. The figure is from the
19th century, and joined the museum collection in 1922.
This
nkondi
figure is
located at
the Brooklyn Museum and is a part of the African
Art collection.
Figure 1 Nkisi Nkondi, 18th-19th century, Brooklyn Museum
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Nkondi meant “a hunter who leaves to hunt in secret”5, the nkondi’s purpose was to
track down unidentified wrongdoers. The nkondi figures often had menacing facial expression
and way stance of the body also was a sign of authority and aggression. Not all the nkondi
figures looked the same, but there were some stylistic traits that were common among many of
the figures. “The figure is often that of a human being, signifying aggressive intent by its
uplifted spear, hands on the hips, or bared teeth.”6 Image one shows to aggressive traits, the
hands on the hips and the teeth showing. The statue’s overall design was did not just signify
aggression, but these “particular statue[s] has a
frightful aspect, people will respect it and think that if
it attacks it will change [the victim] to be like itself . . .”7 Even though the Kongolese would
fear and respect the figures, the figures were just ordinary objects. The figures were ordinary
objects until the infusion of the three domains of nature and the completion of the activation
ritual. The figures gained its power from the spirit that inhabited the figure, and that power the
spirit brought was where most of the fear originated.
Using the nkondi figure meant that the practitioner had to drive pieces of iron into the
figures body while telling it a target. In some case the practitioner did not know who the target
was and so the practitioner would tie something that either belonged to the suspect or was from
the scene of the crime. The practice of driving the nails was called “koma nloko, 'to nail a
curse.'”8 This nkondi was not used as much as some from the Congo, as seen in Figure 3.
5 Volavkova, “Nkisi Figures of the Lower Congo”, 54. 6 MacGaffey, Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular, 101. 7 Konda, from Kinkenge, Cahier 120, as in Wyatt MacGaffey, “Complexity, Astonishment and Power.
The Visual Vocabulary of Kongo Minkisi”, 199. 8 MacGaffey, “The personhood of Ritual Objects: Kongo “minkisi””, 54.
Figure 2 Nkondi, showing material attached to metal
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Figure 3 Nkisi Nkondi, 18th-19th Century, Yale University Museum
Figure 4 Ekishi Omoi, 18th - 19th century, Emory University
“In the body of the nkisi iron spikes are driven so that
Nkondi may be angry on account of its wounds and work
vigorously in the body of its victim, who is the occasion for
the spikes to be driven; the nkisi attacks the wrongdoer, so
that the spike may come out.” 9 When the piece of iron was
driven into the nkondi’s body it wanted revenge, and so the
nkondi would go forth and attack the wrongdoer.
The nkondi had three main purposes in the social
sphere of the Congo; the first was to pursue unknown
wrongdoer, the second was when parties entered into a
contract, and the last was when someone was seeking protection for themselves. The nkondi
were so effective, because the Kongolese did not want it to come after their lives. “‘Nkondi
Mukwanga had pursed me here, surely I will die in the same fashion.’ Not long after he will
feel a burden on his back, a pain in the blood, blood will gush from his nose, and he will die of
his affliction.”10 The nkondi were powerful minkisi that helped dispense justice in their local
communities.
Figure 4 is of a healing nkisi figure, named Ekishi
Omoi, from the Congo region. Ekishi Omoi is a standing
wooden figure with its arms at its side. The figure has a
woven raffia cloth covering, and a reed peel holds it on.
9 Demvo in Kingoyi, Cahier 27, Nkisi Nkondi, as in Wyatt MacGaffey, “The personhood of Ritual
Objects: Kongo “minkisi””, 54. 10 MacGaffey, Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular, 103.
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Figure 5 Ekishi Omoi, close up of the face. Can see cracked mirror, month area, and ear holes
The figure has glued on black hair, looks like real hair but unsure, the hair is falling off in
some areas. There are mirrors in the eye sockets, and it looks like there is stuff behind the
mirrors. The right eye mirror has a crack, and both mirrors are degrading (see figure5). There
is a hole where a mouth should be, and it looks like there something there. After looking at the
accession file I know that there was a cowery shell there when they got it, but it fell out. The
ears a hollowed out on the side of the head. There is a necklace with small beads on it, and the
beads are red and yellow with one white bead. The head appears painted at one time, but it has
faded, there are still visible signs of red and white pigments. The figure’s measurements are
13” x 5 ¼”. The figure is from the late 19th century or early 20th century. It was a gift to the
Emory University Museum of Art and Archeology in 1935 by Reverend J.H. Maw, along with
descriptions of the uses of nkisi Omoi.
A healing nkisi “is the thing we use to help a
person when that person is sick and from which we
obtain health … to protect the human soul and guard
it against illness for whoever is sick and wishes to
be healed. Thus an nkisi is also something which
hunts down illness and chases it away from the
body.” 11 The power of a healing nkisi would
normally come from the “below” spiritual domain.
The spiritual domain had two sections of power,
11 Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy, New
York: Random House 1983, 117.
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“the above (ku zulu) and the below (ku nsi).”12 The above was the sky and celestial waters and
were masculine and violent in nature. As the below was the earth and terrestrial waters and
were feminine and benevolent. The healing nkisi’s power was from the “below”, they were not
aggressive nor were they meant to seek justice. Their purpose was help better the community
or the owner.
This type of minkisi figure was a part of the everyday occurrences of the community it
resided. The healing minkisi used to help with anything from helping replenish life into
someone’s crops to helping someone live a long life. In some cases help prevent someone
getting poisoned.
“If a person has enemies and fears that he will be poisoned by them he will
go to the witch doctor and tell him. The witch doctor will tell Omoi and she
will tell the man that he must pay the 15.00 francs or the equivalent. The
man will pay the 15.00 francs and the witch doctor will give him some
bitter food as an example of food that has been poisoned. The man will eat
it and thus know that if he is ever given food that has that bitter taste that he
must not eat it. However, if he is ever given any food that has poison in it
that isn’t bitter he will vomit it up and not die because he has made the gift
of 15.00 francs to Omoi.”13
This description is from the accession file that was with nkisi Omoi. For this kind of nkisi to
work the practitioner had to make some kind of sacrifice to it, such in this case money, but
12 MacGaffey, “The personhood of Ritual Objects: Kongo “minkisi””, 50. 13 J.H. Maw, Power of the Ekishi Omoi, Doll Idol (Ekishi Omoi) accession file, 1935, Emory University
Museum of Art and Archaeology.
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other times it would be killing an animal or even food. These sacrifices were from the person
that was asking the witch doctor to perform the ritual. The minkisi figures had power and
influence on all level of the Congolese societies, and they were “used to ensure personal
protection, healing, or good fortune…”14 The use of the minkisi figures was a part of everyday
life, they were an integral part of the Congolese society. The healing nkisi were viewed as a
chief figure in the community.
20th Century Western views of Minkisi
In the western world has viewed the artifacts and objects of Africa as valueless and
garage. Early European traders “in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries deemed the … African
societies to be founded on the valuing of trifles and trash.”15 The early European traders would
normally see no value in the artifacts of the African world, but as time went on and they saw
more of the African societies they started to find their “art” to be interesting and “exotic”.
When dealing with African artifacts the Western world called art even when they have other
purposes. Such as the minkisi figures they called art and displayed in art museums all around
the western world. Many of the Congo spiritual items are visually appealing and have a many
levels of visual effects happening in one item. When these items on display in museums the
exhibits are normally “constructed with great care in order to produce a visual effect…”16
Items like the minkisi figures are not pieces of art in their native setting, they are powerful
spiritual objects that contain living souls. Although many museums do include that they are
spiritual items on their display tag, but they often do not have any type of background
14 Young, Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery, 111.
15 Wyatt MacGaffey, “African Objects and the Idea of Fetish”, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 25 (1994), 127.
16 MacGaffey, “Complexity, Astonishment and Power. The Visual Vocabulary of Kongo Minkisi”, 189.
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information on their display card. For most patrons of art museums they do not know what
these items are and only view them as “art”. Some museums have large collections of African
artifacts that they display, and in some cases the museums have sent people to Africa to collect
these items for display.
In the western world non-European art got classified as exotic art and the stranger and
less western it looks the more exotic it becomes. These items will get display at museums and
will be the focal point of a people’s whole culture. Europeans have not always been the best at
trying to understand what is different to them. Frequently the displayed artifacts will have
“details on the peoples and cultures that artifacts are said to represent. Notions of function,
context original culture, and authenticity shroud the legitimacy of such objects”17 Museums
will give only a brief description of a non-European object, and not always full information.
Art galleries though do not really look at the context of the artifact, instead they will classify
objects based on the objects visual appearance. Some exhibits do focus on both the visual
appearance and the cultural contexts, but they question and blur art and ethnography in their
displays.18 The collectors of these collections had interests of their own when going to Africa
and collecting these objects. Arnold Ridyard was a collector for the Liverpool Museum, and
“he had a taste for wooden masks and figurative sculptures.”19 Ridyard’s focus on figure
collection explains why there are so many idol figures and Minkisi in museum collections. Just
about any African exhibit will have figures in them, and often if the exhibit has Congo artifacts
there will be an nkisi among them. With the large number of African artifact, especially in
17Louise Tythacott, “The African Collection at Liverpool Museum”, African Arts 31, 3 (1998):, 18.
18 Tythacott, “The African Collection at Liverpool Museum”, 21. 19 Tythacott, “The African Collection at Liverpool Museum”, 22.
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figures, how did it influence the African American art movements, such as the Harlem
Renascence, or did it?
The Harlem Renaissance, which a blossoming of black artists, was a movement by
African Americans to revitalize their African roots in the arts. The movement was not just the
visual arts but also literary arts and theatrical arts. Among this movement there was a growing
Pan-Africanism among the African American artist, of all the arts. Artist Meta Vaux Warrick
Fuller was sculptor, saw her works as being “truly Pan-Africanism works of art.”20 The ideas
of getting back to their African roots was a wide spread idea, and they were also using it help
build their own section of the art community. The African American artists were wanting to
use their ancestral roots for their inspiration of their arts. But how did they see African art and
what kind of art were they viewing?
For the African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance many of them did not go to
Africa to view the arts themselves, instead they viewed the arts in museum collections. The
African art “was beginning to enter American museums and was accessible through the
collections of prominent avant-garde art dealers.”21 These collections allowed the upcoming
African American artists to see what their “ancestral heritage” was and allowed them “to return
to the ancestral arts of Africa for inspiration.”22 They were viewing only selected pieces of art
that were visually appealing and meant to get people’s attention. The collectors were not
always concerned with what the object’s purpose was, but there were some collectors, like J.H.
Maw, who did collect the objects and the stories that belonged with the object. The minkisi
20 David C. Driskell, et. all, Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America, 108. 21 David C. Driskell, David L. Lewis, and Deborah Willis, Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America,
New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1987, 105. 22 David C. Driskell, et. all, Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America, 106.
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figures though did not have an impact on the Harlem Renaissance (that I was able to find), but
objects such as masks, headdresses, jewelry, and paintings had more of an impact on the
Harlem Renaissance. Even though the African Americans were attempting to return to their
roots in the arts, much of their art still had western influences mixed in, and unlike the art of
the Harlem Renaissance “the nkisi figures themselves, however, remained African.”23 The
minkisi figures were a fascination for Westerns, and viewed as exotic and fetishes. But the
minkisi figures did not really ever influence American art to any significant degree.
Conclusion
The Minkisi figures were an integral part of the Congolese societies, and they had great
power. There were four categories of minkisi in the Congo, two of them were the healing
classification and the Nkondi. The nkisi nkondi had a spirit from the power of the above,
which meant that the spirit was masculine and had violent tendencies. As the healing nkisi
(Ekishi Omoi) had a spirit from the power of the below, which meant that the spirit was a
feminine and non-violent. The two different figures had their purposes in the communities: the
nkondi’s purpose was to help seek justice against wrongdoers and the Ekishi Omni’s purpose
was to help heal the living. The nkondi would help find an unknown suspect, be a part of treaty
signings, and help with person al protection. Ekishi Omoi would help heal the living, and that
meant helping to heal humans, help protect against poison, and even help revitalize a farmer’s
crops. The minkisi figures were a part of the community they resided in and viewed as a living
object. The figures themselves did not have power before the spirit entered into the figure’s
body, but the figure themselves did become a fascination of the Western world and pieces of
art.
23 Volavkova, “nkisi Figures of the Lower Congo”, 59.
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The early European explores first saw the Minkisi figures and other African figures as
glorified garage, but around the late nineteenth century museums and collectors started
wanting them. Westerns called the Minkisi exotic and fetishes, these objects viewed from an
aesthesis view and not a cultural context. The Museums might have some information about
the object on a display tag, but the information was minimal and did not have much in
background information. The other African arts, such as masks, headdresses, jewelry, and
paintings, were collected, too. These objects helped influence Western arts to some ends, but
when it came to African American art movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance, they were
more heavily influenced by the African objects that were in the Museum collections. However
the Minkisi figures were not a part of the influential base for the Harlem Renaissance, instead
they used more of the African paintings, masks, and jewelry in their arts. But did the Harlem
Renaissance really help African Americans get back to their ancestral roots of art? Getting
back to the African ancestral roots of arts was difficult, because many of the people that were
collecting the objects for the museums would have their own likes and dislikes. So this would
limit the samples that the African Americans could view. Many of the African American works
had influences from the African art, but they still had Western influences ingrained in the
works. The minkisi figures unfortunately were not drawn upon by African American artists
during the Harlem Renaissance. The figures themselves remained an African stylized object
that the western world has turned into an exotic fetishism for museums.
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Bibliography
Primary Sources
Doll Idol (Ekiski Omoi). Gift of Reverend J.H. Maw, 1935.1.20. Emory University Museum of Art and Archelogy.
Male Figure (Nkondi). Yale University Art Gallery, Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection, (2006.51.246).
Maw, J.H. Power of the Ekishi Omoi. Doll Idol (Ekishi Omoi) accession file,1935. Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology.
Power Figure(nkisi nkondi). Museum Expedition 1992. Robert B. Woodward Momorial Fund, 22.1421. Brooklyn, New York.
Secondary Sources
Driskell, David C., David L. Lewis, and Deborah Willis. Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1987.
Gubert, Betty. “Three Songye and Kongo Figures”. African Arts 15, 1 (1981): 46–88.
MacGaffey, Wyatt. “Fetishism revisited: Kongo “nkisi” in Sociological Perspective”. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 47, 2 (1977): 172-184.
______________. “Complexity, Astonishment and Power. The Visual Vocabulary of Kongo Minkisi”. Journal of Southern African Studies 14, 2 (1988): 188-203.
______________. “The personhood of Ritual Objects: Kongo “minkisi””. Etnofoor 3, 1 (1990): 45-61.
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_______________. “African Objects and the Idea of Fetish”. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, no. 25 (1994): 123–31.
______________. Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Thompson, Robert Farris. Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy. New York: Random House, 1983.
Tythacott, Louise. “The African Collection at Liverpool Museum”. African Arts 31, 3 (1998): 18–94.
Volavkova, Zdenka. “Nkisi Figures of the Lower Congo”. African Arts 5, 2 (1972): 52-84.
Young, Jason R. Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery. Louisiana State University Press, 2007.