a superb studded fetish. - Bakongo - DRC Congo (No reserve price)

Fetiche Nkisi Nkonde - Kongo / Yombe - RDC Zaire - Nkisi Nkonde
The Minkisi (plural of Nkisi) truly embody the essence of a spiritual entity that submits to human control through rites. They are used to solve all kinds of problems (illness, infertility, conflicts...)

The Minkisi were also the custodians of the clan’s collective memory and could, on occasion, serve to avenge the innocent by inflicting sudden illness on the perjurer or by killing him.

They are generally anthropomorphic statues 15 to 30 cm high, possessing a ventral cavity in which the magical charge is placed: the bilongo.

This is composed of various vegetal and animal substances placed in the cavity closed by a resinous cork adorned with shells or a mirror. The mirror allowed the diviner to detect the approach of witches coming from each of the four directions.

Closing this receptacle is not a trivial act, for it indicates that the invoked powers can be mastered.

It is the diviner, the Nganga, who during a ceremony places the charge and thus activates the powers of the statue using multiple touches.

Subsequently, since he is the intermediary between the person who comes to consult him and the Nkisi, the Nganga licks a nail or a metal element and drives it into the body of the statue. This ritual is sometimes reproduced in sculpture, some Nkisi having their tongue hanging out.
According to sources, it is noted that sometimes it was the client himself who licked the nail before driving it into the statue (Treasures of Africa - Tervuren, page 288).

By licking the nail, the diviner and/or the client thus “awakens” the spirit of the Nkisi, which can now be summoned.

Then everything hinged on the gaze. There was the gaze of the Nkisi, whose eyes of metal or bright mirror seemed to fix the one who takes the oath.
And conversely, the gaze of the client, who could not take his eyes off the piece of mirror on the statue’s belly where the magical substances were hidden.