NKISI FIGURES AS THEATER PROPS

TRACING TH E HISTORY OF SEVEN RIT UAL OBJECTSFROM CONGO TO C LEVELAN D

HEIN VAN HBE

In I961, duri ng a holiday in the south of France ,Odette and Rene Delenne stu mbled onto ashop in Nice that sold antiques , curiosities, andtrinkets of various sorts. Much to their surprisethey foun d there a small collect ion of woodenfigure s of African origin. A couple ofyearsbefore, they had been greatly impressed by theAfrican art on display in the Congo pavilion ofthe Brussels World's Fair of 1958. In that sameyear th ey had also pu rchased their first Africanwork of art .

The collecrion they encounte red in Niceconsisted ofseven small anthropo morph icfigures measuring between ten and thi rt y-fivecentime ters (cat. nos . 14 -20 ) . An intriguingensemble, the human figures displayed a va­riety ofposes and gestures as well as curiousaddi tions of resin-like bulges, bits of glass andmirror, rags ofcotton, beads, and feathers. Mostremarkably, paperboard labels were attachedto them w ith various inscriptions in Frenchthat seemed to indicate mostly ethnic and geo­graphic prove nance besides some other details.The Delenne s proudly returned home with theodd, bu lgy figures. The object s stayed in th eirprivate collection for almost fifty years untilfindin g a new home in th e Cleveland Museumof Art .

PER FO RMANCE OBJECTSStudents of African art will read ily recognizeth e seven objects as power figures from theKongo region in West Central Africa, whichinclud es parts ofnorthern Angola, Congo­Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville, and southernGabon . While colonial ethnography labeledthem as "fetishes"- a derogatory term th at em ­pha sized the supposed irrationality of Africanreligion s-they are now known by theirKikongo term minkisi (sing. nkisi). An nkisi,writes MacGaffey (2004, 242) , is "a person al­ized force from the invisible land of the deadthat has chosen, or been indu ced, to submititselfto human control effected though ritualperformances." The focal object of the ritualwas often an anthropomorphic or zoomorphicsculp ture in woo d. This figure partly served

as a container for the "medicines" in which theancestr al spirit was supposed to reside , while itsparticular expression obviously contributed tothe nk isi's overall visual impact.

In theory, the specific vegeta l and an imaling redients necessary to compose a specificnamed nkis i were only known to the ritualexpert , called the nganga (plur. banganga). He orshe also knew the secret formulas, the gestures,and the songs th at turned a seemingly technicalassembly ofheteroge neous items into a dramat­ic performance. In practice, there was no doubta gre at deal of improvising. Ritual expe rtsapplied a "visual vocabulary" which in its total­ity w as perceived as being based on esotericknowledge, while at th e same time some ofitsme tonym ic and me taphorical association s couldbe readily understood by participant s in therit ual. Clients would intu itively understand that

Figure 3 2, "Scene de fettchls rne chez les Bavilts.' Ngangawith minkisi and two musicians, Congo-Brazzaville, c. 1905.Photo: Jean Audema. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives,National Museum of African Art. Smithsonian Institut ion,Washington, D.C., EEPA 198 5·140011.

the inclusion ofearth from the graveyard orwhite clay from a streambed (metonymically)induced the presence and pow er ofan ancestoror nature spirit in the object. Other items wouldbe added because thei r names, by way of a pun,easily evoked a part icula r qu ality or capacity,while other me taphors were visual: leopa rdclaws, snake head s, feathers ofbirds of prey.

T he amalgam of "medicines" and the per­formance as a whole remained mysterious, andth is obviously lent authority to the nganga'sintervention . The range of ingredients and thepossible form s of the container were indefinite,and banganga regularly imp ressed their clientsw ith inn ovations. Museu m collect ions revea lthat almost any object could be turned into annkisi (for example , fly whisks, wooden bells,imported gin bottles). A photograph datedaround 19 05 shows an nganga dressed in ritualgarments and holding a small nkisi in his lefthand (fig. 32) . At least four other minkisi standin front ofhim, while two musician s, playing adrum and a pluri arc, cheer up the perform ance.The picture was taken by Jean Audema (1864­1921) , who occupied several administrativepositions in the French colony of Moyen Congobetween 1894 and 1910. Although the photo g­rapher's identity may cast doub t on th e com­position's spontaneity, the photograph rightlyemphasizes the fact that an nkisi object waspart ofa broader complex and th at the impact ofthe complete performance exceeded th at of th eobject (MacGaffey 1988) .

PUZZLE PIECESThe paperboard labels attached to the sevenm inkisi provide limi ted primary infor mationabout the objects . "Moyen Congo, A.E.F." is thebroad geographic location for all of them, refer­ring to the current state of Congo-Brazzaville,whic h before 1960 was part of the federation ofFrench Equatorial Africa. Several of the moreprecise geographica l names can be located byscru tinizing Alexan dre Courtry 's detailed mapof French Congo (1897) . The objects were col­lected in various places, from Loango on theAtlantic coa st to Tietie on the Djoue River,nort h of Brazzaville. Between these two loca­tions, defining an area about four hu ndredkilom eters wide, three objects were collectedon the banks of th e Kwilu River, along thelower reaches at Kakarnoeka and upstream atLoudima and Ntima.

Th e ethnic attributions are "Basoundi,""Bavili," "Baloumbo," "Yaka," "Bakouni ," and"Balali," group identities forged in pre vious cen­tu ries by the dynamics oflong-distance trade.(Ea- is the Kikongo prefix indicating a plural ofpersons .) The ethnic classification of the sevenm inki si reflec ts common coloni al practice more

tha n it indicates differences in use or sculptu ralstyle. The ideas and cosmological assump tionsunderlying minkisi were, broadly speaking, thesame throughout the area. Looking at sty le,the seven objects all corre spond to what arthistorians have defined as "Kongo,' generallycharacterized by a realism in proportions andin the reproduction of the human face. Kongoart is further celebrated for the diversity inthe often asymmetric poses and gestures, andthe use ofmi rror or glass for the eyes and th ered-white-black color scheme are also typicalof Kongo minkisi (Thompson and Cornet 1981;

MacGaffey 1993; Thompson 2002) .A few objects' labels offer addit iona l infor­

mation about use and function, while someother det ails can be inferred from their visua lappea rance. The sma ll figure from Loango,bear ing a sizable medicine load on its headand belly, is said to be a "very old fetish" thatbelonged to "the sorcerer of Loango who wasth e chief of all the sorcerers of the region of theBavili" (this and subsequent translations fromth e Fren ch are mine) (cat. no . 19) . Its precisefunction , says the label , is uncl ear, "but th e clawseem s to indicate that the nki si was capable ofinfl icting wounds like th e leopard does." This islikely also how Bakongo understood the visualmetaphor.

Three minkisi in the collection belonged tothe ndll da category. According to the mission­ary ethnographer Leo Bittremieux (1922 , 469) ,an nduda was a "small nkisi loaded with gun­powder in order to shoot at witches ." An nduda(plur. zindllda) can be recognized by its attached"guns: ' fine tubes of elepha nt grass loaded withgunpowder (MacGaffey 2004, 242). The ndudabattalion consisted ofat least a dozen ind ividu alm inkisi. About one of them, nki si MuanaMvaku , a native informant named Alois Tembowrote in 1915:

Muana Mvaku stays in the hou se of his own­er, at night and during the day, and he alwayspro tects th e whole house. When he sees thata w itch comes to attack his owner, he shootshim, and the witch will die at his house orelsewhere , after a short illness. The shot ofan nduda's gun never mi sses its target, whenhe shoots the other will be hit . In the morn­ing one sees that the guns are empty, the bul­lets lie on the grou nd. When one composesan nkis i nduda , one also makes sma ll gu ns tobe his children and you can take them withyou, hang them on your belt or around yourneck. . . . Then, wherever you go, if a witchwants to attack you , th e gu n will shoo t him :

The two tallest mi nki si in the collection arceasily recognizable as zinduda. One of them hasfeath ers of a bird of prey on its head, with two

small guns point ing upward and a th ird hang­ing down (cat . no. 14). Its label calls it "a veryold and rare fet ish" that had belonged to "thesorcerer of Louboulou." The second one wa scollected in Kakamoeka and had been the nkisiof t he nganga of t he nea rby village of Ngotou(cat. no. 18) . Its tw o upward guns identify thenkisi as an nduda, but the label also bears thewo rd coliqlle, a term referr ing to heavy painscaused by intestinal obstruction. The thi rdnduda is the only figure that adopts the threat­en ing pose ofmany minkisi of the nkondi ty pe:the right hand raised , holding a spear or knife,and the left hand resting on the hip (cat . no . 16).

Two guns protrude horizontally on both sidesof the cylindrical medicine pack on the belly,covered with a rou nd piece of m irror. Whiteclay almost completely covers the figure, refer­ring to the realm of the ancesto rs.

One figure has lost its nkisi load on the bellybut now shows how the m ixture of earth, resin ,leaves, glass, and other items was fixed onto thewo oden figu re, supported here by four nails(cat. no. 20) . This nkisi was collected at Ntimaon the upper course of t he Kwilu and had beenthe property of "the sorcerer of Mbauka u." Thelabel calls it "an old and ra re fetish" capable oftreating "fevers and headaches." Collected inthe same region, near Loudima, was the fig urelooking to the left and bearing white- and red­colored medicine loads on the belly and theback (cat. no. 15). It is nicely asymmetric, andthe pose may refer to the nkisi's capaci ty tosee more than others. Also asy mmetric is thelast figure in th e group, showing a man sit-ting cross-legged, his right hand resting on hisknee and his left hand suppor ting his head (cat.no. 17) . The head wears the mpll headdress ofchiefs with its characteris tic geometric deco ra­tion, nicely car ved out here in bas-relief. T hefigure's specific pose may refer to a mental stateof mourning, perh aps a referen ce to what th enki si may induce in the person against whomits action is directed. The medicinal cha rge ofth e nkisi, qu ite exceptionally, takes the form ofa truncated cone on which the figure sits. It issaid to be "very old" and to have bee n used by"the sorcerer of Tiet ie on the Djou e River:'

FROM CO NGO TO N ICEThe small figu re with its head turned to th e left(cat. no. 15) is said to have been "taken by th eReverend Father Bernard of the m issio nariesof the Holy Spirit." Knowing th at missionarieswere usually reme mbered by their last nameby their fellow brothers, and judging fro m theregisters of the Spiritan archives, this personmust be Father Michel Bern ard (19T1-T9 93).

Appointed bishop ofBrazzaville in 1954,Fathe r Bern ard set out to establish a number

of new parishes and mission station s in bothBrazzaville and th e countryside.

That Father Bernard him self "seized" thisparticular nkisi is possible and yet unlikely. It isfar more plausible that the objects were collect­ed in earlier tim es, at the end of the nineteenthcentury or in the first decades of the twentieth.This is the time when many sim ilar objectswe re collected by colonial officers, traders , andmissionaries and registered in the co llectionsof Europe's major ethnographic mu seums. Wealso kn ow from scientific explorations carriedout in the T950S that by then virtually all min­kisi had been destroyed or abandoned. Ourseven objects probably lingered for yea rs in am ission station or school , oc casionally u sedfor didactic purposes or to amu se a passingEuropean visitor. Since all seven objec t labelsbear the same handwriting, the re must havebe en an attempt at some point to constitute"a collection." Knowing its further history, wem ay assum e that this wa s a person al undertak­ing. Th e objec ts presumably t raveled to Franceas part ofa set of "souven irs from Africa."

The name of the antiques shop in Nice hasnot been recorded, but we know from Odett eDelenne that the shop did no t specialize inAfrican ar t. Th is suggests that the person wholeft the seven Kongo mink isi there, probablyshortly before the Delennes' visit in 1961 , didnot th ink of them as very special. Althoughthis is speculation, it may be tha t this personwa s co nnected to the home for retired Spiritanmissiona ries in Grasse, about forty kilometersfrom Nice. The ow ner's dea th, perhaps, mayhave rendered the collect ion redundant, andsomeone w ith business in N ice Simply did aw ayw ith it.

OBSOLETE AGENDASCould the re have been other rea sons for thecollection's disposa l? And why had Europeanscollected so many ethnographic objects inAfrica in the first place? One of t he key motiva­tions of Europeans to collect m inki si was aspro of of t he irrationality of "the natives," whoseemed to lack a proper understanding of t hedifference bet ween objects and things. This"observation," among othe r things, motivatedthe civilizing mission th at the colonial powersendowed themselves with in Afr ica (MacGaffey1993, 30 - 33) . The beliefin one's own superior­ity brought some Europeans to openly ridicu lethe use of minkisi. The German trader RobertVisser, for exa mple, pho tog raphed what hecalled "the three main idols of Majumbe land"together wi th two chimpanzees (Adler andStclzig 2002, 43). The picture wa s widely distrib­u ted as a postcard and title d "Chimp anzees andFetish, an Ensemble of Beaut ies."

Figure 33 . Three minkisi figures with three men mockingahealing ritual. Mayombe region, Democratic Republic of theCongo. 1902. Photographer unknown. Bombeeck FamilyArchives, Belgium (courtesyof Hein Vanhee, Brussels).

The same "three idols" recently resur faced inanothe r photograph , albeit in a different com­position (fig. 33). Dated 1902, the pho tograph isheld in the fam ily arc hive of the descendantsof Ha rry Bombeeck (b. r876) , a commercialagent who operated in Lower Congo between1902 and '904. Three young men are staging adramatic scene around the three minkisi, to beunderstood as an invocat ion to obtain the heal­ing of the man lying on his back in front of thefigures. The kneeling man on the right folds hishand s together as if in prayer. The man on theleft dramatically raises both hand s, seeminglyin response to a sign given by th e objects. Thissort of puppet-theater, scripted by an un seendirector, is one of the more striking examplesof how Europeans created im ages ro willfu llycontrast the Africans' "fetishism" with thecivilization and progress they were supposedlybringing.

Missionaries dwelled less on the perceivedirrationality un derlying minkisi but rather tookthem as evidence of the devil's sway over the ig­norant African peoples. They viewed operat orsof minkisi as crooks and thieves who exploitedthe ignorance of their client s, and th ey con­sidered th e influence of the banganga a majorobstacle to the conversion of the people andused various strategies to combat them , Theirtravel diaries reported extend ed theological de­bates with village chiefs and elders on witches,angels, and other supernatural truths. Ot herconfrontations were less peaceful, and mission-

aries often let their native catechists take thelead when situations became too heated. Thisoften resulted in violent clashes or in th e publicdestruction of minkisi in the village square.

A key figure in the "war against fetishes"around th e tu rn of the centu ry was FatherAlfred Garn ier (r864- 1915). He bitterly com­plained that "in the end, everything in thiscountry can become an nkisi for the native,as soon as it is consecrated by the fetish priest[because] for him th is is a means to get rich."Not all minkisi, however, were broken or burnt.A characteristic feature of Kongo religion wasits periodic renewal, during which peoplewou ld engage in public ritua ls to purify thecom munit y of witches. Usually then all mi nk isihad to be aban doned or destroyed in favor of anew cult (janzen r971) . In the contex t of suchan anti-witchcraft movement in Mayombe , forexample, it happened th at many minkisi weregiven to the missionaries, who were thought ca­pable of neutralizing their power (Vanhee 2000,102). Other minkisi were given up as the ir own­ers converted to the new religion or recognizedth e effectiveness of the missionaries' medi calservices. Father Garnier and his fellow brotherscollected many of them , and the seven minkisidiscussed here may well go back to th at period.Every abandoned "very old and rare" nkisi wasa sign of progress for th e mission, representinga victory gained ove r one or another importantand influential "sorcerer."

The independence ofmany African states in196 0 and the violent conflicts that characterizedthe transitions were a turning point in howEurop ean s in general thought about Africaand the ach ievements of colonial rule. Africannation alist movements seriously challenged th emaster narrative of colonialism and its belief inpr ogress, guided by Europe's supposed supe­riority. African elites rejected the patern alismth at ethnographic collectio ns had long help ed tojus tify. For decades, nkisi figures had been liketheater props: objects used on stage to furtherthe plot or storyline of a theatrical produc tion .The sto ry had variously bee n about ancestors,nature spirits, and their peculiar demands, orabo ut humanity's moral obligation to stri ve form aterial and social progress, or still about theexpulsion of the devil and the spread of God 'skingdom on Eart h . The rapid and turbulentdecolonizatio n of Africa bewildered the ac-tors who had held onto their old att ributes .Eth nogra ph ic collections of "superstitious"or "pagan" objects suddenly became anach­roni sms. This Joss ofmeaning, however, wastemporary and would soon be countered bythe emergence ofan international market forAfrican art.

[14 - 20] Seven FigurinesKongo. H. 11.5-34 em.

58

59

[1 6] Male FigurineKongo. H. 17 em.

60

[19] FigurineKongo. H. 12 em.

•