Nkisi
It is frequently applied to a variety of objects used throughout the Congo Basin in Central Africa, especially in the Territory of Cabinda that are believed to contain spiritual powers or spirits.
[1] The current meaning of the term derives from the root *-kitį, referring to a spiritual entity or material objects in which it is manifested or inhabits in Proto-Njila, an ancient subdivision of the Bantu language family.
[2] In its earliest attestations in Kikongo dialects in the early seventeenth century, it was transliterated as mokissie in Dutch, as the mu- prefix in this noun class was still pronounced.
It was reported by Dutch visitors to Loango, the current territory of Cabinda, in the 1668 book Description of Africa as referring both to a material item and the spiritual entity that inhabits it.
[3] In the sixteenth century, when the Kingdom of Kongo was converted to Christianity, ukisi (a substance having characteristics of nkisi) was used to translate holy in the Kikongo Catechism of 1624.
[6] The metal objects commonly pounded into the surface of the power figures represent the minkisi's active roles during rituals or ceremonies.
[8] The substances chosen for inclusion in minkisi are frequently called bilongo or milongo (singular nlongo), a word often translated as 'medicine'.
However, their operation is not primarily pharmaceutical, as they are not applied to or ingested by those who are sick, and perhaps bilongo is more accurately translated as 'therapeutic substances'.
Rather they are frequently chosen for metaphoric reasons, for example, bird claws in order to catch wrongdoers or because their names resemble characteristics of spirits in question.
Among the many common materials used in the minkisi were fruit (luyala in Kikongo), charcoal (kalazima), and mushrooms (tondo).
Some are used in divination practices, rituals to eradicate evil or punish wrong-doers, and ceremonies for protective installments.
Many nkondi also feature reflective surfaces, such as mirrors, on their stomach areas or the eyes, which are held to be the means of vision in the spirit world.
People who fall sick with diseases known to be associated with a particular nkondi may need to consult the nganga responsible for mediating with that spirit to determine how to be cured.
Although nkisi nkondi have probably been made since at least the sixteenth century, the specifically nailed figures, which have been the object of collection in Western museums, nailed nkondi were probably made primarily in the northern part of the Kongo cultural zone in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The intentions of the banganga who created minkisi were practical; that is, their characteristics were dictated by the need of the object to do the work it was required to do.
