Nkondi
Nkondi (plural varies minkondi, zinkondi, or ninkondi)[1] are mystical statuettes made by the Kongo people of the Congo region.
The vocabulary of nkondi has connections with Kongo conceptions of witchcraft which are anchored in the belief that it is possible for humans to enroll spiritual forces to inflict harm on others through cursing them or causing them to have misfortune, accidents, or sickness.
[2] "Kindoki", a term derived from the same root is widely associated with witchcraft, or effecting curses against others, but in fact refers to any action intended to enlist spirits to harm others.
The earliest representation of an nkisi in this pose can be seen in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Kongo, designed around 1512 and illustrated between 1528 and 1541, where a broken "idol" is shown with this gesture at the base of the shield.
[6] Other scholars believe that the Portuguese missionaries brought images of Christ nailed to the cross and the martyr Saint Sebastian to the peoples of Central Africa, and these experts believe that this iconography maybe have influenced nkisi tradition.
[9] Nkondi with nails were made at least as early as 1864, when the British Commodore A. P. Eardley Wilmont acquired one while suppressing Solongo (Soyo) piracy at the mouth of the Congo River, a piece that was the subject of a contemporary painting and is presently in the Royal Geographical Institute in London.
The nganga gathers materials, called nlongo (plural bilongo or milongo), which when assembled, will become the home of a spirit.
According to Kongo testimony of the early twentieth century, people drive nails into the figures as part of a petition for help, healing, or witness-particularly of contracts and pledges.
Nkondi figures could be made in many forms, including pots or cauldrons, which were described and sometimes illustrated in early twentieth century Kikongo texts.
Human figures ranged in size from small to life-size, and contained bilongo (singular longo; often translated as "medicine"), usually hidden by resin-fixed mirrors.
After the nkisi was built and the nganga had learned its proper use and the corresponding songs, he returned to the village covered in paint and behaving in a strange manner.
Robert Farris Thompson, an American art historian has been particularly diligent, and influential in identifying Kongo influences in the African descended population of the Americas.
2" first exhibited in 1988 is perhaps the most famous of these, a life sized statue cast from Stout's own body with the glass eye features and a few nails reminiscent of nkondi.
Stout's work was the subject of a major exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of African Art, featuring her various nkisi pieces with commentary by anthropologist Wyatt MacGaffey.
[23] American artist Justin Par adapted the aesthetic and philosophy of Nkisi Nkondi into three sculptures entitled 'Nkondi A', 'Nkondi B', and 'Nkondi C', using nails salvaged from utility poles, to create miniature architectural landscapes, in a solo exhibition entitled "Reliquum", at the Center for Visual Arts, in Greensboro, NC, 2012.
