Standing male power figure (nkishi)

Mankishi (sing. nkishi), containers for potent medicines that protect families or individuals against sorcery, malevolent spirits, and diseases are said to be more important to the Songye peoples than are ancestor figures, which serve as vessels for the spirits of their ancestors. Songye mankishi are made in a variety of sizes according to their use, either personal or communal, and are figurative and nonfigurative. Figurative mankishi are carved by sculptors and activated by a ritual specialist (nganga) who places potent medicine in an animal horn inserted into the nkishi's head, into a pouch worn by the figure, or directly into the nkishi's head or abdomen. They were named and their reason for existence defined.

This small male nkishi studded with brass tacks may have protected an individual against smallpox.(25) Clearly, the figure has been deactivated as evidenced by the hole atop his head that once held a small animal horn filled with potent medicines and the empty abdominal cavity that would have been packed with similar substances and sealed.

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 54, pp. 164, 166-167.

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NOTES:

25. Smet, Peter A. G. M. de. Herbs, Health, Healers: Africa as Ethnopharmacological Treasury. Berg en Dal, Netherlands: Afrika Museum, 1999. p. 23.