Olson, J. S. (1996).The Peoples of Africa:An
Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press.
NKISI
Nkisi(Minikisiis the plural form) is a Kongolese
word for sacred medicine and, by extension, any
object or material substance invested with sacred
energy and made available for spiritual protec-
tion and moral use. BaKongolese believe that the
god Funza gave the world the first Nkisi. The
source for the Nkisi potency is the bakisi,
messengers from the spirit world. Minikisi are
vessels or sculptures made of ceramic, cloth,
wood, or othermaterial. They contain spiritually
potent substances toheal and defend against spir-
itual maladies. The Nganga, the spiritually
healer, diviner, and mediator, usually creates
them. Africans uprooted from this region,
enslaved and dispersed during the Maangamisi
(African holocaust) and Mfecane (dispersion),
retained knowledge of some form of Nkisi mak-
ing. In places throughout the United States, par-
ticularly the Deep South, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, Miami, and Florida, African descen-
dants still create Nkisi. Nkisi making is also
found throughout the Caribbean and the African
Latino world, in places such as Cuba, Haiti, and
Brazil. This spiritually charged material of heal-
ing is activated through ritual use of the word or
by other means. A special person made sacred by
role or function speaks the words that transform
the material into a magical power capable of
healing or correcting those behaviors that are
betrayals of the rules of conduct in the society.Functions of Nkisi
Nkisi has many interrelated functions. African doc-
tors use it to affect healing, aiding the sickly to get
well. They use the Nkisi to search for the spiritual
and physical source of a malady and then chase it
away from the body. As a preventive measure, the
spiritual leaders also use it to protect the human soul,
guarding it against disease and illness. In addition,
they used it as a companion to instruct or redirect the
spirit, sooth a broken heart, and greet a provocateur
with laughter and generosity. They use it to serve as
a charm to repel enemies, arrest them in their tracks,
or inflict an illness on them, and to bind its owner to
a friend or attract lovers. Furthermore, they use it to
affect natural phenomena, such as changing a
weather pattern or preventing or creating storms.
Alternatively, they use the Nkisi to embody and
direct a spirit; similarly, they used it as a hiding place
for a troubled soul, keeping and composing order.
Finally, they use it to preserve a life.
The African sense that informs the Nkisi is
the assumption that it is a living form, at one with
the spirit. Africans see the Nkisi as a metaphor of the
cosmos in miniature form, a form charged with
emanation, flashes, and traces of the spirit. Speech
is often the activating agent both verbal and gestual.
Accordingly, they view the Nkisi as divine spark450 Nkisi
Nkisi lumweno medicine figure.19th century.Vili People,
Loango region,Republic of Congo.Nkisi is the physical
container for a spirit from the other world,the land of the
dead.When activated by a specialist,or nganga,it has the
power to heal,to protect,or to punish.
Source: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource,
New York.