Power figure (nkisi)
Unknown Artist
late 1800s-early 1900s
Medium
Wood, organic materials (including resin), iron, reed, tooth, seashell or glass beads, and possibly plastic
Dimensions
12 × 4 × 4 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
René and Odette Delenne Collection, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
2010.442
About this artwork
One of seven anthropomorphic figurines, these minkisi contained medicines in which an ancestral spirit was believed to reside. Minkisi were objects of communal use; if conflict arose between two citizens, the Nkisi figure, along with the nganga (ritual leader) helped resolve the dispute. This small figure belonged to “the sorcerer of Loango,” chief of all sorcerers of that region (a province and port in West Central Africa).