Nkisi

Nkisi (plural minkisi) are sacred power figures and the spiritual forces they house in Central Africa, especially among Kongo-speaking communities along the Congo River and neighboring peoples such as the Mongo. The term nkisi can denote both the vessel and the power it contains. Makers are often nganga, ritual specialists who establish a specific association between the figure and a particular purpose—protection, healing, justice, or oath enforcement.

Nkisi are usually carved wooden sculptures, sometimes with metal elements, medicine contents, cloth, or seeds contained in cavities. To activate, a nganga performs rites, recites incantations, and places substances within the figure; the power becomes resident in the nkisi and can be called upon when needed. For some nkisi, especially nkondi, external nails, blades, or other sharp objects are driven into the sculpture to mark oaths or acts and to make the power more potent.

Nkisi function as agents of social regulation: they can compel truth, enforce agreements, heal disease, protect a household, or mete out punishment. Access to the nkisi's power is typically restricted to authorized practitioners and ritual specialists; communities consult the nganga to determine when and how to appeal to the force.

Today, minkisi are studied as central to Congo Basin cosmology and African art. Many examples entered museum collections in the 19th and 20th centuries; current scholarship emphasizes their ritual context over purely aesthetic value and engages debates over cultural patrimony and repatriation.