A comparison of the anthropomorphic Vodun power-figure

(West African bocio / bo / vodu / tro) with its Kongo

counterpart (Central African nkisi)

Lloyd D. Graham
Graphic abstract:

Text abstract: This paper compares anthropomorphic power-figures from the Vodun and Kongo
cultural areas. Vodun is practised along the Guinea Coast of West Africa (especially in Benin and Togo)
whereas the Kongo religion is native to the west coast of Central Africa (especially the two Republics
of the Congo and northwest Angola). First, overlaps in belief and praxis between the Vodun and Kongo
religions are highlighted. Second, similarities are identified in the design and significance of anthrop-
omorphic Vodun power-figures, especially Fon bocio and Ewe bo/vodu/tro(n), and their Kongo
counterparts – minkisi, and especially minkondi, which are better known in the West as “nail fetishes.”
The disturbing appearance of the figurines, the ritual operation of features such as pegs/padlocks,
nails/blades, bonds/sutures and magical/medicinal material (Kongo bilongo) are treated in detail.
Activation and appeasement by sacrificial blood, alcoholic drink and coloured dyes are also considered.
The analysis ends with a broad intercultural comparison which ranges from ancient Egyptian belief to
the art of Polish surrealist Zdzisław Beksiński, encompassing en route the zār cult and the Polynesian
tiki. Overall, the study finds that the Vodun bocio/bo/vodu/tro(n) has much in common with the Kongo
nkisi nkondi, the two sharing notable similarities in purpose, construction and operation. One difference,
however, is that large Kongo minkondi used to serve as archival repositories of a community’s oaths,
treaties and petitions, a commemorative role seemingly not shared by Vodun power-figures.

1
Introduction
Anthropomorphic power-figures from the western half of the African continent have long
fascinated European collectors, curators, ethnographers and anthropologists. Two epicentres
are recognised for the production and use of such figures, namely the Guinea Coast1 of West
Africa (especially Bénin2 and Togo) for Vodun “fetishes,”3 and the Congo region of Central
Africa (especially the Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]4 and
northwest Angola)5 for BaKongo/Kongo, Yombe and Vili ones (Fig. 1).6 These represent two
different religious and cultural complexes – Vodun and Kongo, respectively – which are
embedded in populations of different ethnic and linguistic heritage – Guinean and Bantu,
respectively.7 Accordingly, their artefacts have traditionally been considered separately in
Western scholarship. For example, the catalogue of Jacques Kerchache’s collection, Vodun –
African Voodoo,8 considers only Fon and Fon-like power-figures (bocio) from Bénin, while
Suzanne Preston Blier’s African Vodun covers Fon bocio from Bénin, Ewe power-figures
(bo/vodu/tro/tron) from Togo, and related items from neighbouring peoples.9 Conversely,
African Fetishes and Ancestral Objects (edited by Didier Claes) confines itself to the output
of the Congolese Bantu groups of Central Africa, including the BaKongo/Kongo, Luba and
Songye,10 while the ethnographic half of the National Museum of African Art’s Astonishment
and Power catalogue is an essay by Wyatt MacGaffey that is tightly focused on the history
and significance of Kongo power-figures (minkisi; plural of nkisi).11 The edited book
Mayombe – Ritual Sculptures from the Congo concentrates on wooden artifacts from the
Yombe people and includes many anthropomorphic minkisi.12
Vodun is distinct from the adjacent religion of the Yoruba people, a populous Guinean ethnic
group whose heartland lies in Nigeria. Nevertheless, mutual influences are evident, and the
impact of Yoruba religion on Vodun has been substantial.13 Some of the Vodun deities –
vodun or vodu – are readily identified with Yoruba orishas;14 for example, Legba with Exu
(messenger) and Hevioso with Shango (thunder).15 The names themselves are often cognate,
e.g. the war-deity is called Gu (Fon), Egu (Ewe) or Ogun (Yoruba), while Legba (Fon)
undoubtedly comes from the second part of Exu’s full name, Exu-Elegba (Yoruba).16 Both
cultures use a similar geomantic system for divination, which is called Fa (Fon), Afa (Ewe)
or Ifa (Yoruba).17 Indeed, Jacques Kerchache has gone so far as to assert that “The Fon of
Dahomey and the Yoruba of Nigeria share more or less the same culture: their deities, under
different names, have attributes and rituals that are very similar.”18 (Dahomey is an older
name for Bénin; in its strict sense, it refers to the kingdom centred on Bénin during the 17th-
19th centuries.) The Nago, who constitute a Yoruba subgroup in Bénin,19 perform egungun
(Yoruba ancestor festivals) in Ouidah and Porto-Novo to the present day,20 and Nago
carvers/fetishists have produced many bocio that are otherwise indistinguishable from those
of the Fon.21
Within Vodun, “Fon and Ewe forms of Vodu worship are virtually the same.”22 Fetishes of
non-anthropomorphic type – which constitute the majority23 – are known to both groups as
bo, “empowerment objects,”24 a category to which the Ewe also apply the multivalent term

2
 Fig. 1. Map showing the countries (black type) and ethnicities/language groups (black type in
parentheses) of greatest relevance to the paper. Religion/culture clusters are indicated in bold
grey italics; Togo and Bénin in West Africa provide the Vodun cluster, while the region around
the mouth of the Congo River on the west coast of Central Africa (which includes parts of the
two Congo republics and Angola, plus the Angolan exclave Cabinda) provide the Kongo cluster.
BaKongo indicates BaKongo/Kongo people.25

vodu.26 An anthropomorphic bo (i.e., a power-figure) is termed a bocio by the Fon (Figs. 2 &
3), but such statuettes do not seem to merit a specific Ewe term even though they clearly are
made and used.27 In particular, Albert de Surgy’s fieldwork in Togo confirmed that wooden

3
Fig. 2. Fon bocio, Bénin, 19th century, 38 cm. Wooden “twin figure” embellished with duck skull and human (?)
jawbone, necklaced with cowrie shells and string, encrusted with sacrificial patina and feathers. Brooklyn
Museum 49.45; image by Brooklyn Museum, CC BY 3.0.28 While the museum catalogue entry claims that this is
a twin figure, it seems more likely to represent a single figure with two heads; multiheadedness is a common trope
among deformity bocio.29

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Fig. 3. Fon bocio, Bénin, 20th century. Human figure with iron (?)
headpiece,30 gourd, and other bound attachments, encrusted with sacrificial
patina. Museu Afro Brasil, Sao Paulo; image by Sailko, CC BY 3.0.31

5
figurines of human aspect can form part of bo,32 bo-vodu,33 simple vodu,34 and complex
vodu,35 and an Ewe practitioner may have a collection of such figurines in his ensemble.36
There are visual differences between power-statues from the two ethnic groups. According to
one source, “Stylistically, the Ewe bochios37 are quite different [from the Fon]: they are
simple, straightforward and very powerful despite their rudimentary carving. The eyes of
practically all Ewe bochios are made of shells (cowries). The mouth is a simple square or
elongated hole and also the nose is carved with minimal means.”38 Despite these
generalisations, many Ewe power-figures do not have cowrie eyes or open mouths; however,
the eyes are typically carved in a cowrie shape using raised relief (e.g., Fig. 4). Conversely,
some figurines that are reportedly of Fon origin have genuine cowrie eyes, simple strong
noses and an elongated hole for their mouth (Fig. 5). In the world of Vodun, all boundaries
are fluid.39
Kongo minkisi take many forms; as with Vodun power-objects, only a minority are
anthropomorphic.40 Small human figures made of light wood are intended to accompany and
protect its owner on journeys (Fig. 6), while large ones may exceed 1 m in height (Fig. 7).41
For minkisi, “the classifications suggested by different Kongo authors vary, and none is
exhaustive. Furthermore, important minkisi were often credited with several functions.”42
However, they fall into two moieties: those of “the below” (earth, sea, pools, streams;
women’s affairs and healing) and those of “the above” (sky, rain, thunderstorms; men’s
business, treaties and punishments).43 In the first category we find the mbumba, whose
protective activities include safeguarding pregnancy.44 In the second category are the nduda
for warrior’s issues, divination and protection against witchcraft (the nduda carries “night
guns,” i.e. tubes loaded with gunpowder, which it can fire at witches),45 and the nkondi, a
hunter that tracks down and punishes witches, thieves, adulterers and other malefactors.46 A
nkondi often has a raised right arm that carries a spear or knife.47 The figure can be adjured
by driving a nail or blade into it, and in the past nkondi were often used repeatedly in this
way to record and enforce oaths and contracts.48 In Western institutional and private
collections, such nkondi are often referred to as “nail fetishes” (Figs. 7-9). As we shall see, it
is the nkisi nkondi that has the greatest overlap with the Vodun bocio or anthropomorphic
bo/vodu/tro/ tron (hereafter shortened to bo/vodu).49
Like the BaKongo/Kongo,50 Yombe and Vili, whose territories lie near the mouth of the
Congo,51 the Songye – whose land lies upriver, in the east of the DRC52 – are also well-
known for their nkisi figures.53 However, these are somewhat different in appearance to the
western groups; e.g., many are clad with metal sheets or arrays of studs and have a large
animal horn filled with bilongo (magical charge) protruding from the top of the head.54 Since
Songye power-figures are less likely than the coastal minkondi (plural of nkondi) to have
multiple features in common with Vodun power-figures, they will not be considered further.
The slave trade saw Yoruba, Vodun and Kongo religious practices transmitted to the
Caribbean, where they influenced one another while separately metamorphosing into new
forms appropriate to the changed circumstances of their adherents.55 Yoruba religion gave
rise to Santeria in Cuba, a Spanish colony; Vodun gave rise to Voodoo in Haiti, a French

6
Fig. 4. Ewe bo/vodu, Togo, 20th century, 32 cm. Left: front view; Right: rear view. Wooden figure with
attachments (packets, padlocks & keys, cowrie shells, etc.), encrusted with dark sacrificial patina, feathers and
laundry blue (or similar pigment). Author’s collection. Four cloth bags are attached to the shoulder-girdle; of the
front two, one is red and the other white with a faint coloured pattern, perhaps floral; of the back two, one is very
dark – perhaps black – and the other less so, both being heavily stained with dark patina. One of Albert de Surgy’s
informants describes the manufacture of two Ewe fetishes thus: “We begin by making a pouch by sewing together
four pieces of different fabric (indigo, white, red, multicolored), taken from the four fabrics provided by the
recipient,”56 and “We pack this bag and the body of the statuette in four kinds of fabrics: white, indigo, red and
floral.”57 This second combination of fabrics occurs in many Ewe fetishes.58 There appear to be 13 padlocks in
total on the figurine; these are of many different brands, sizes and colours and exhibit different degrees of rusting
or coating, suggesting sequential addition over a long period. Uses of the figurine are unknown, but each padlock
has a tightly-folded paper (presumably bearing a name or request) tied securely to its hoop/shackle.

7
8
9
Fig. 5. [Previous two pages] Fon bocio, Bénin/Togo, 20th century, 29 cm. Page 8: Views 1-4, 90° clockwise
rotations; Page 9: zoom of view 2. Wooden figure with attachments (fabric strips, bone, stone or nut, snakeskin,
carapace, spark-plug, metal hoop girdle, etc.) encrusted with dark sacrificial patina, feathers and laundry blue or
indigo. A tightly folded paper is tucked into the metal hoop.59 Author’s collection. Suzanne Preston Blier observes
that “Certain bociɔ, particularly call bo and those empowered by vodun, are defined in turn by their cowrie-shell
eyes.”60 That this figure wears strings of beads,61 cords,62 multicoloured fabric strips (rainbow),63 cowries
(wealth)64 and a snakeskin potentially associates it with the vodun Dan, “the serpent-resembling god of wind and
motion [... responsible for] providing humans with the power of mobility.”65 Mobility is suggested by the inclusion
of a spark-plug from a motor vehicle engine near the figure’s left shoulder.66 On his back is a turtle or tortoise
shell, a protective shield used “to distance bad things from oneself;”67 the turtle is also seen as a sage and diviner.68
Suzanne Preston Blier mentions a class of Dan-embodying vodun-bocio to which this figure may belong.
“Sculptures of this type frequently are used to determine the cause of specific malevolent actions against an
individual (theft, for example) and then to punish the associated culprit. [...] ‘It is the priests (of Dan) who have
this in their room. Not all the priests have this, only those who do geomancy with the vodun.’”69

colony, and Kongo religion gave rise to Palo Monte (whose best-known variety is Palo
Mayombe) in Cuba. Most of the resulting Afro-Caribbean religions are syncretised to some
extent with Roman Catholicism – Santeria more so, Voodoo less so.70 In turn, most of these
new religions migrated to the mainland of the Americas where they established derivatives of
their own: for example, Santeria gave rise to Candomblé in Brazil and Brujeria in Mexico,
while Voodoo gave rise to Hoodoo in Louisiana. In the New World there has been further
syncretisation between Afro-Caribbean traditions that were originally distinct, e.g. some
aspects of Santeria can be found in Palo Mayombe, while some Congolese elements have
entered Santeria and Voodoo.71 The repatriation of manumitted slaves to Africa – for
example, the early- to mid-19th century return of Brazilians to Bénin72 – closed the
transatlantic migration loop and invited feedback from the New World that may have further
blurred religious boundaries within Africa, although in the example cited it seemingly did
not.73 But 19th-century Ouidah in Bénin included among its population people from Angola
and Africans repatriated from Cuba,74 which – given Vodun’s acquisitive and incorporative
nature75 – may well have resulted in Kongo influences on modern West African Vodun.
Overlaps in cultural and religious background
The Vodun and Kongo religions are indigenous African animistic/polytheistic belief systems
that focus on natural spirits and on ancestors. In Vodun, spiritual power is called ashé, the
agencies are termed vodu(n); these are deities,76 but may also be ancestors, natural
features/forces, human anomalies, etc.77 The supreme gods are Mawu (female, lunar) and
Lisa (male, solar);78 the sky pantheon under Hevioso (god of thunder) exists in opposition to
the earth pantheon under Sagbata (god of smallpox).79 Legba is an important phallic deity. A
priest is termed a vodunsi (“spouse of vodun”) or bokono,80 and Vodun priesthood has many
overlaps with shamanism.81 Asen are parasol-like iron altars representing ancestors or deities.
In Kongo religion, the main creator god is named Nzambi a Mpungu or Nzambi Kalunga,82
and the spirits are termed bisimbi or kimpungulu.83 The Kongo universe is split (by a body of
water, kalunga) into two worlds, the upper one of the living, nza yayi, and the lower one of

10
Fig. 6. BaKongo nkisi, Congo, 20th century, 20 cm. Left: front view; Right: 90° rotation clockwise. Hand-carved
from a single piece of light wood (figure weight 155g), glass eyes; circular glass abdominal window, behind
which is white-coloured bilongo (magical/medicinal ingredients). Author’s collection.

the dead, nsi a bafwa.84 The boundary, kalunga, is porous, and Kongo rituals are designed to
manipulate the relation between this world and the other one.85 A priest or ritualist is termed
a nganga.86
Despite the evident differences in concept and nomenclature, we have already noted that both
belief systems recognise and value power-objects (“fetishes”), which are believed to contain
a spiritual agency. For both Vodun and Kongo practitioners, these power-objects may – as

11
Fig. 7. Nkisi nkondi “Mangaaka,” DRC or Angola, 19th century, 118 cm.87
Metropolitan Museum of Art 2008.30, image by Trish Mayo, CC BY 2.5.88

12
Fig. 8. Nkisi nkondi “Manyanga,” Kongo people, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 19th century, 108 cm.89
Left: whole figure. Right: close-up of head and upper torso. British Museum Af.1905.525.3 (Room 25).90

mentioned above – be non-anthropomorphic in appearance (a non-figural bo/vodu or nkisi) or

they may take human form (a bocio-like bo/vodu or figurine-type nkisi). The application of
the Kongo term nkisi to both the spirit and the power-object that contains it is very similar to
the Ewe use of the term vodu.91 Different bo/vodu have different specialties, such as diseases
that they can inflict and treat,92 and different minkisi do as well.93 For example, the Ewe bo
named Tsuakö can cure joint pain or avenge its client on an abuser by causing the latter to
experience joint pain,94 whereas the Kongo nkisi named Mabyaala ma Ndembe is appropriate
in the case of inflicting/curing a swollen stomach or swollen feet.95
In Vodun, “the colour white recalls the heavens and the ancestors.”96 It is a symbol of peace
that can be used to pacify humans and calm bocio.97 The linkage of white material with death

13
Fig. 9. Yombe nkisi nkondi, DRC, 28.5 cm. Left: front view; Right: 90° rotation clockwise. The projecting
hairstyle “bun” is a compressible fabric bilongo container (weave of cloth is exposed at right of right-hand panel
where paint/patina has flaked off), while the bilongo mound above the feet is rigid. The eyes are glass, and a
circular glass abdominal window terminates the abdominal barrel – the latter contains bilongo consisting of small
dark objects (shells?) embedded in a white matrix. Most of the embedded ironware seems to be hand-forged and
is complemented by an extensive and tight cord winding. A patina of spat particulate material (and/or flicked
paint of different colours simulating such a finish) completes the surface, further obscuring the contents of the
abdominal barrel. Author’s collection. The absence of arms and encumbrance of the legs with a mound of bilongo
may perhaps be understood by reference to the literature on Vodun bocio, where “the absence of arms and legs
proves the impotence of the victim.”98 Equally, the omission of forearms on minkisi may simply be a way of
increasing the area available to the nganga for attachments and piercings.99

and the ancestors is shared by Kongo religion, in which “white clay signifies ancestral force
from beyond the grave.”100 Wyatt MacGaffey tells us that “The land of the dead is itself
called Mpemba, which means white kaolin clay and which in turn is used as a sign of
clairvoyance and innocence.”101

14
One can also identify strong procedural similarities in certain religious practices, such as
initiation. According to Jacques Kerchache, the training of a Vodun adept or priest begins as
follows:102
[An initiate] will be brought to the convent, or ‘thicket’, where he will undergo a long
initiation that may last several months or several years. During this period, the initiate
will lose his mother tongue in order to acquire the ‘holy’ language that will be used in
ceremonies. When he returns to civilian life, he will remain dedicated to the god and
[...] will relearn his mother tongue without forgetting the language acquired during the
initiation process.
Compare this with the Kongo procedure required to become the nganga of an important
nkisi,103 i.e. the ritualist who can make and operate a particular power-figure:104
Initiation was understood as a stay in the land of the dead, which was reached by
plunging under the surface of a deep pool. [...] In reality, the candidate and his wife
spent the time at a hidden camp in the bush, learning all the songs and the rules of the
nkisi in question and how to compose the object itself. At the end of this seclusion the
candidate or candidates would emerge fantastically painted and dressed and behaving
in strange ways to show that they were not yet used to being back in the normal world
of the living.

The Vodun and Kongo religions both consider the fontanel – the summit of the head – to be
important and have similar concerns about protecting it. In Vodun, the fontanel is a privileged
place where the soul resides. Some bocio have holes in the tops of their heads through which
they can be fed or into which medicines can be put.105 But also, “One says that sorcerers take
possession of the soul of an individual by passing the hand over the summit of the head. That
is why the gesture of posing the hand on the head of someone is very suspect, especially
when it is a stranger who touches the head of a child.”106 In Kongo belief, “The head was
thought of as the site of communication with the spirits, who were considered able to enter
through the fontanelle; minkisi therefore had medicine packs on their heads ‘so that their
fontanelles might be open’ [... N]owadays, a mother protects an infant’s head from unwanted
spiritual invasions by sticking a live (unused) matchstick in the hair over the fontanelle.”107
Another potential area of overlap is that both cultural blocs seem to have encoded beliefs via
written symbol systems that have visual similarities. Kongo graphic writing (Fig. 10, left) is
the subject of a recent paper and academic monograph by Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz,108 but –
apart from Fa geomancy signs, which are combinations of simple strokes109 – the Vodun
symbolic repertoire has not yet been documented.110 However, Africans who were
transported to the Americas during the period of the transatlantic slave trade (late 15th to mid-
19th centuries) brought their writing and graphic systems with them,111 so the vèvè notation of
Haitian Voodoo (Fig. 10, right) is believed to derive primarily from indigenous inscriptional
practices of the Slave Coast (now southern Bénin and Togo). In Haiti, the Vodun graphic
writing system has assimilated key elements from its Kongo counterpart (such as the dikenga
sign, a cosmogram formed by placing a cross centrally within a circle).112 Indeed,
Haitian ideographic signs, called Veve, derive from a mixture of Fon, Yoruba, Ejagham,
and Kongo traditions. People from all these cultures were taken to Haiti in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and gradually their religions and their graphic
forms merged with Catholicism into the Vodun religion. In Haitian art we see the

15
Fig. 10. Examples of Vodun- and Kongo-derived graphic writing. Left: Palo Monte firma from Cuba, meaning
unspecified.113 The firma of Insancio (Siete Rayos) or “Seven Rays of Lightning” (not shown) may be thought of
as a nkisi nkondi in written form.114 Right: Voodoo vèvè from Haiti, symbol of the loa Maman Brigitte.115

reappearance of the Kongo cosmogram, in textiles, groundpainting, cut steel sculptures,

and in paintings depicting marriages, ceremonies, life, death, the watery ancestral world,
and the rebirth of souls.116
Conversely, a historical influx of Haitians into Cuba explains why many of the firmas of Palo
Monte in that country – a Kongo-derived religion – resemble Voodoo vèvès.117
Disentangling the African sources behind the Caribbean hybrids is a challenge for the future.
As Martínez-Ruiz comments at the end of his book, Kongo Graphic Writing and Other
Narratives of the Sign, “Far more work can be done on Kongo graphic writing systems in the
diaspora. In particular, Haiti, with its active practice of Voudou and use of Vévé graphic
writing [...] all present rich potential for further study.”118 The key point for the present
discussion is that the symbolic repertoires of the African Vodun and Kongo religions seem to
have been highly compatible – so much so that they readily combined to form hybrid sign-
systems in the Caribbean. (We might note in passing that the similarity of the resulting
diagrams to the demonic “sigils” of Western ceremonial magic has not gone unremarked.119)
Moreover, we may deduce from Martínez-Ruiz’s book that the semiotics of the African

16
systems were fairly fluid, because the interpretations of Kongo graphic elements by BaKongo
informants in Central Africa differ in almost every respect from the interpretations of the
same elements by Palo initiates in Cuba – a disconnect that the author never actually
acknowledges.120
Power-figures
Overlaps in design and significance
In Vodun, power-figures from the Fon (bocio) and Ewe are a type of god-object (vodu/bo),
i.e. a sacred sculpture empowered by spirit of a vodu(n) or another supernatural agency such
as the “tiny spritelike forest beings called aziza,” whether acting singly or in combination.121
Only men can carve a bocio sculpture.122 The vodu(n) that it embodies after ritual activation
(which may be done by a Vodun priest, diviner, medicine/additive trader or family
member)123 may be a deity, a divinized ancestor, a natural feature or force, or even a human
anomaly. For example, in a relatively recent branch of Ewe Vodun, the agency – termed
gorovodu – is the divinized spirit of a specific foreigner who (when alive) was typically a
slave from the north.124 The etymology of the Fon term bocio is ambiguous but the word
identifies the figurine as a corpse.125 In one understanding, the statue is an “empowered (bo)
cadaver (ciɔ);”126 in another, it is the “corpse of an evil spell,” insofar as the figurine presents
itself as a substitute target or decoy for malicious magic directed against those under its
protection.127 Indeed, a kudio bocio is a “death-exchanging” bocio which substitutes itself in
this protective manner for a living individual, the equivalence being established by the
attachment of a piece of the human’s clothing to their wooden “body double.”128 Among the
Fon, a malicious practitioner or sorcerer is called an azɔnɖotɔ, azetɔ or kennesi.129
In Kongo belief, a specific spirit (nkisi) inhabits each sacred receptacle, altar, or figurine
(nkisi). However, a freshly-carved statuette remains inert until it has been empowered by a
fetishist who attaches the appropriate additives and performs the necessary rituals.130 Each
nkisi derives its power from a dead person with relevant personal qualities; it is in fact a
“portable grave.”131 The term nkisi comes from the verb kinsa, “to take care,” because the
nkisi helps the owner through its presence and power; it is a living being “with breath
(mwela), eyes and ears, a life to exchange for another, and the power to both cure and
punish.”132 As mentioned above, the ritualist responsible for owning and operating a
significant nkisi is called a nganga.133 A malicious practitioner or witch is called a ndoki – the
ghost in his nkisi can attack victims and harm or kill them.134
From the foregoing, one can identify several common elements. First, a Vodun power-object
(bo/vodu) and a Kongo power-object (nkisi) can both take anthropomorphic form, being
made as a human figurine carved from wood. Second, such figurines are linked with death,
being identified either as a corpse (Vodun) or as a grave (Kongo).135 Third, there is potential
overlap because the Vodun object is home to a vodu(n) or related agency, and a vodu(n) can
be an ancestral spirit – the same class of entity that inhabits a nkisi. Moreover, the existence
of a named nkisi (e.g. Mabyaala)136 specific for a certain set of problems/remedies – a nkisi
that is manifested simultaneously in many copies operated by different nganga137 – makes the
resident spirit of such a nkisi appear more as a deity than as the soul of a single deceased

17
person; this in turn broadens the overlap to include Vodun power-figures that embody deities.
Finally, there is an indisputable overlap in function, insofar as both types of statue act as
protectors and sentries,138 guarding their owners against attack. The idea that the nkisi
represents “a life to exchange for another” suggests that it, like the bocio, may substitute
itself for its owner if the latter becomes the target of witchcraft. In psychotherapeutic terms,
both bocio and minkisi serve as targets of projection and transference by their
clients/owners.139
Further similarities are evident in how the resident spirits of the power-figures are
manipulated – the ways in which they are activated, nourished, provoked and mollified.
Bocio “are fed palm oil and animal blood.”140 Indeed, bocio are fed with chicken sacrifices,141
just as “The chicken sacrifice which was often part of the ritual of invocation was said to feed
and energise the nkisi [... and] also represented the violence that the nkisi itself would inflict
on its victim.”142 Gin and chewed herbs or seeds such as Guinea pepper are spit at/on the
bocio to adjure it;143 similarly, magical materials are transferred to minkisi by spitting, a
transaction that could either activate them (in the manner of an insult) or calm their rage.144
Violating a bocio by intentionally polluting it with a forbidden substance engenders the rage
of the vodun that it embodies – rage that can then be redirected from the bocio to the target
person, namely the malefactor who is to be punished.145 Highly emotive qualities such as
fire/heat, knotting/tying, and speech/saliva are key elements in the theatre of bocio activation,
in which the client is also a participant; these “props” span all five human senses.146 Kongo
practice is similar; beyond animal sacrifice and impaling a nkisi with metal, exploding
gunpowder or dousing the figure with strong drink is another way of activating the statue.147
There are even occasional reports of human sacrifice in connection with minkisi. The Yombe
nkisi called Pfula Nkombe is described by the missionary Father Leo Bittremieux (ca. 1910)
as “a powerful nduda or ndoki hunter who, at least at his inauguration, requires several
human lives. [...] Apparently the little mirror that decorates his belly contains nine human
hearts.”148 Human sacrifice does not seem to be attested for bocio, perhaps because the
anthropological field-work on the Guinea Coast was conducted much more recently than that
in the Congo.
One notional difference between Vodun bocio and Kongo minkondi is that the former,
conceived as corpses, are often carved with closed mouths and are thought to lack the power
of speech,149 whereas the latter typically have an open mouth with bared teeth, a jutting jaw,
and sometimes a protruding tongue. The open mouth is interpreted to mean that the nkondi
can speak and is about to do so,150 while the extended tongue is taken to refer to the practice
(discussed below) whereby a client licks a nail or blade before it is hammered into the
statue’s body.151 However, a quick survey of Vodun power-figures will identify many that
have been carved with open mouths, especially (as noted in the Introduction) those made by
Ewe sculptors.152 Moreover, Sagbadju – one of Suzanne Preston Blier’s Fon informants –
expressly records of some bocio used in Vodun-powered divination that “this thing talks. It
sees. If you stole something, it will tell on you, saying ‘It is a tall person.’”153
Fon bocio with pointed bases that one inserts into the earth are associated with Legba and can
only be used for a single purpose.154 In contrast, those on flat plinths (such as Fig. 5)155 are

18
associated with other vodun (or, in some cases, with sorcery) and “can be reactivated and
reused a number of times.”156 Vodun power-figures that fail to perform to expectations are
“abandoned, left to die” and no longer receive offerings.157 Like free-standing bocio, “Most
minkisi [...] have been employed many times. Sometimes the nganga simply followed a
different mode of procedure to use the same fetish for a purpose other than its previous one,”
while at other times the repurposing was more radical.158 Like bocio, privately-owned minkisi
must prove themselves effective if they are to be kept in service. Zdenka Volavkova records
that “an Nkisi figure which is found weak or ineffective may be returned to the nganga [who
...] after a little adaptation, sometimes sold them to another client.”159 Minkisi that do not
work command no respect and may be subject to ridicule.160 Even a once-powerful nkisi can
lose its authority, for example if his nganga dies.161
A male Vodun power-figure may have several small figures – “followers” – bound to him;
the main figure is usually taken to represent the chief healer or agent, the minor ones his
assistants.162 A female power-figure may also include small figures – “children” – among her
accoutrements.163 Ensembles of the latter type are considered members of the widespread
African genre of maternity sculptures; these Vodun embodiments are thought to invoke the
powers of Minona, the female counterpart of the phallic trickster-god Legba.164 For example,
one Adja bocio of this type “has the attributes of Sakpata, the vodun of the earth and of
smallpox, which are indicated by the pierced pottery on the head and the red fabric. It also
has the attributes of Minona, the vodun of maternity and of sorcery, which are indicated by
the child hanging from its hip.”165 Similarly, in Kongo statuary, children may be carried by a
female nkisi, often in the classic “maternity” pose; this indicates that the female is a married
woman.166 Minkisi (including, surprisingly, minkondi) “often had important functions relating
to maternity.”167
The similarities between the two types of power-figure have attracted little commentary in
the literature. Nevertheless, the overlap has not gone entirely unnoticed. Wyatt MacGaffey
observes in a footnote that “Kongo [nkisi] nkondi are similar to Fon bocio from Dahomey,”
i.e., from Bénin.168 Similarly, Suzanne Preston Blier writes that “Bociɔ’s closest visual
heteronyms [...], however, are Kongolese power sculptures [...] and similar power figures
from Zairian groups such as the Yaka [...]. Parallels between bociɔ and these latter traditions
include a diverse range of body-piercing forms, binding elements, and materials applied to
(or in) the stomach as a means of empowerment.”169 In terms of function, she elaborates,
“The latter objects, like bociɔ, function according to Wyatt MacGaffey [...] as ‘both avenger
and victim; (their) ... appearance reflect(ing) this ambivalence.’”170 Dark Matter (the
Nyehaus catalogue of William Harper’s Vodun collection) reports of an Adja bocio that
“Figures such as this are protectors, and are likely a corollary, both visually and functionally,
to Bakongo nail fetishes.”171
Suzanne Preston Blier believes of bocio that “Works of this sort no doubt were made and
used prior to the slave trade,” which places their origin in the 17th century or earlier. Noting
similarities in the methods by which power-figures are adjured in Senegal and Burkina Faso
(West Africa) as well as in the Congo, Duncan Caldwell has suggested “that many of the

19
practices surrounding power figures (and, to some extent, minkondi) might go back nearly a
millennium, when the Sahel spawned numerous migrations, or even back to the Bantu
expansion from 1000 to 500 BCE.”172 The initial Bantu core was located in the highlands
between eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon,173 and the southward expansion down the
west coast reached Cabinda (Angola/DRC) in the 13th century CE.174 There the Bantu
displaced the indigenous Khoisan and established several powerful kingdoms175 – a history
that potentially allows for cultural continuity between West Africa and the Congo. Consistent
with this trajectory, Blier muses in a footnote: “While it may be tempting to suggest that
bociɔ forms are derivative of the better known (in the West) Kongolese sculptures, that the
latter is the source of the former is highly unlikely. Indeed historians generally trace African
migration from West to East, thus making any early influence more likely to have flowed in
the opposite direction.”176
Revealing, concealing, confusing and deceiving
For Vodun bocio, “the sculpted part is concealed beneath an accumulation of materials that
endow it with its power.”177 Similarly, an anthropomorphic Kongo nkisi begins as a carved
human figurine that the nganga buys from a sculptor. It is not effective until the nganga has
added bilongo and performed the necessary rituals.178 For bocio, Fa geomancy is used to
determine the nature of the necessary additions to the sculpture;179 “The diviner [...] furnishes
the list of materials and magic formulas that accompany the making of the fetish in order to
turn it into a sacred object.”180
Active or retired Vodun power-figures typically manifest tensions and contradictions so
extreme that they have a high shock value, especially for Western viewers. Suzanne Preston
Blier writes that their surfaces are
covered with [...] a ‘garbage heap’ of matter – iron beads, straw, bones, leather, rags,
pottery, fur, feathers, blood. [...] Adding to this sensate quality, packets of potent
substances hang heavily from the figure’s surface, producing competing visual tensions
of bursting and constriction. A range of suturing forms – cords, beads, iron chains, and
cloth and leather wrappers – secure these and other elements to the figure [...] Slicked
over the head and torso, a thick patina of blood, oil, and feathers, serves as a visceral
signifier of the work’s ritual history.181
Bociɔ [...] are defined in essential ways by features of genre violation, deformation,
mixing and overlapping. Bociɔ for this reason frequently belie easy genre classification
with regard to formal attributes and functional concerns.182
Some bociɔ [...] are predicated on such tension-defined formal attributes as binding
(bondage), piercing (pegging), deformity (multiheadedness especially), and swelling (or
pregnancy).”183
Features of force, fear, shock, fury, disorder, and deception, in sum, play a critical role
in bociɔ reception [...] These criteria in turn have a role in effectuating particular types
of viewer response – be it of mystification, danger or awe.184
A similar assessment has been provided by Jacques Kerchache.185 From Dana Rush, we may
additionally infer that bocio present a reified microcosm of Vodun in general:

In large part, Vodun and all of its intersecting elements survive due to their opacity [...,
which] is a defence against ‘understanding;’ [...] Vodun’s meanings, for example, are
never transparent. Although its prowess in accumulation may appear arbitrary or seem

20
 to lack cohesion it is these very characteristics that conspire to create Vodun’s opacity.
Its open-ended, unfinished sensibilities block attempts at any sort of definitive
interpretation.186

In the same vein, minkisi present a reified microcosm of the Kongo world: “Figuratively, the
nkisi represent[s] all of the power of the earth in miniature.”187 Some attributes of minkisi are
sealed away out of sight in compartments, e.g. behind a mirror or opaque piece of glass,
which increases mystification and prevents rational enquiry.188 Other are displayed on the
surface where packets, knots and nets suggested the constraining of strong forces. “The sheer
intricacy of texture and detail in many minkisi contributed to ngitukulu, ‘astonishment,’ in the
mind of the beholder, suggesting the presence of something extraordinary.”189 A heavily
embellished nkisi was distinguished by “the extravagance of its self-presentation.”190
“Minkisi [...] were intended to create a visual effect in the context of ritual use, heightened by
songs, drumming, dances, the distress of the occasion, and various devices contributing to
‘astonishment’ (nsisi, ngitukulu). The bits of rag, chicken feathers, pieces of raffia, and other
‘mixed media,’ which some collectors in search of pure form used to clean off before
varnishing the piece, were part of the visual effect originally intended.”191 Recently, a large
nkisi nkondi was subjected to a non-destructive “virtual excavation;” conducted as carefully
as any modern archaeological dig, the investigation revealed a wealth of detail about this
particular statue and its myriad meaningful attachments, which included much World War I
militaria.192 CT scanning was not undertaken in this case, but has proven effective in the
“digital dissection” of other Central African power-figures.193
Some old minkisi are “encrusted with a thin patina of what may be blood,”194 consistent with
the earlier assertion that they received sacrificial offerings like Vodun bocio/bo/vodu. A
recent proteomic analysis of the patina on a 19-20th century Adja bocio195 found that it was
primarily “a plant resin with minerals and plant fibers mixed into it,” but also identified goat
blood as a significant component.196 That the main constituent was identified as plant resin is
consistent with the known use of palm oil and sodabi libations on Vodun figurines. Palm oil
is initially bright orange, but ages (presumably via air oxidation) to a black tar.197 Sodabi, an
orange liquor distilled from palm wine,198 is likely to behave similarly.
In modern times, authenticity has become an issue, with many bocio being constructed for
sale to the Western market rather than for domestic use.199 On the website of The Hamill
Gallery of Tribal Art, Boston, we find that Vodun power-figures often carry the warning that
“Despite their appearance and patina, the objects below show no evidence of age or use and
were probably made to be sold.”200 Some of the considerations for collecting Vodun figures
have been addressed in interviews with dealers and collectors by the art magazine ÌMỌ̀
DÁRA.201 In one such article, dealer Ann de Pauw observes that “We see a lot of young and
fake figures appearing at all levels of the market. Often they are ‘too beautiful to be true’—
friendly faces, exaggerated features, big in size, perfectly balanced loads, a little bit of
everything but lacking power.”202 She also points out that

21
 If the whole piece is ‘sacrificed’ from top to bottom (and even underneath), then you
can be almost certain that it is a fake. A natural sacrificial patina is built up, little by
little, over time. During rituals, buckets of blood and other organic material are not
poured onto the figure—sacrificial material is added gradually, sometimes only a few
drops at a time, resulting in a construction of layers. The thickness of those layers varies
depending on the location at which sacrifices were applied to the bocio. Therefore,
you’ll never find a homogeneous sacrificial patina on bocio figures.203
The sole exception might be the situation where a statue is immersed or washed in special
plant solutions during its preparation or use.204 Within the wider scope of de Pauw’s warning
we might include the dowsing of an entire Vodun figurine in laundry blue205 or bright blue
polymer pigment, which seems to be a very recent trend.206 Although seemingly not just a
ruse to catch the eye of potential Western buyers,207 the presence of rows of such statues at
well-touristed “fetish markets” in Bénin is a little suspicious.208 Normatively, blue is added to
Vodun bocio to activate them, and white (kaolin) is used to calm them down.209 For Ewe
bo/vodu, we are told that “The blue colour in the face is a sign of Gambada,”210 where
Gambada is the mother of the Ewe Vodun pantheon from whom all the deities derive their
power.211 Note that laundry blue or indigo has been applied in small amounts to the head
and/or chest areas of Figs. 4 & 5 (as well as selectively to the back of Fig. 4).
The situation of authenticity with minkondi is even more fraught, since Congolese “nail
fetishes” became art objects and collectibles long before Vodun figures did. Accordingly, the
“Bakongo-Style Fetishes Archive” at the Hamill Gallery website carries the sobering
reminder that “Authentic Bakongo fetishes are very rare. Despite their appearance, these
fetish figures show no evidence of age or use and were probably made to be sold.”212 It is rare
– but not unheard of – for a nkisi to show traces of laundry blue or other blue pigment.213
Pegs and padlocks
Pegs are normally found in Vodun power-figures rather than in minkisi,214 but it is worth
noting that in 1670 Olfert Dapper found in the Congo a “seated sculpture of a man with
wooden pegs called nsonso (which later meant nails) stuck in it.”215 The BaKongo explained
a subsequent Portuguese shipwreck as being this entity’s revenge for certain “nailings” that
had been done to it during its temporary removal by the Portuguese.216 It certainly sounds as
if this power-figure was an early form of nkisi nkondi. On the Slave Coast, an early European
report of a bocio-like Vodun figure dates from 1725,217 which incidentally confirms that both
sculptural traditions are at least three centuries old,218 but this power-figure does not seem to
have involved pegs.
Consistent with the ambiguities, tensions and contradictions outlined by Blier and Rush in the
previous section, the essays in the edited volume Vodun – African Voodoo present no less
than three mutually incompatible interpretations of peg insertions into a bocio:
(1) To injure, impair or prevent use of that region/organ of the victim (Jacques
Kerchache);219
(2) To drive and secure remedial medicine within a region/organ that is afflicted by pain or
disease, thereby reaching the root of the problem (Suzanne Preston Blier);220 and
(3) To “lock” the bocio to a particular mission – positive or negative – just as closing the
padlock does in bocios that have such a lock attached (Gabin Djimassé).221

22
In her own book, African Vodun, Blier cites instances that conform not to option (2) above
but to option (1).222 For example, she says “Sometimes pegs are inserted in the ear [...] of a
sculpture to prevent another from hearing of one’s acts,”223 likewise “in the thighs or
buttocks, such pegs are said to lead to immobility or incapacity of movement.”224 Similarly,
she quotes her informant Sagbadju as saying “when one puts the peg in its chest or foot, the
person will not be able to move or do anything.”225 Elsewhere in the same book, Blier
provides examples for Vodun kpododonme (“pierced”) bocio that seem to conform most
closely with option (3).226 Accordingly, she quotes Sagbadju as saying “When you tell (the
sculpture) everything, you press the needle in it. You give it oil, alcohol, chickens. If it
accepts, everything will come to pass.”227 More specifically, she reports her informants
Yemadje and Dewui as stating that “The peg is used to hold the words inside” and “the peg
represents something that one says. One speaks to this peg and closes the [metaphorical] door
with it – thus the pegs represent promises.”228
The detail of Djimassé’s method – option (3) – is that the peg is first removed and its
tethering cord partially unwound from the figurine; “then, as the mission is intoned, the cord
must be would back around the object and the peg put back into the groove. To finish, one
spits finely chewed atakun (Guinea pepper) seeds onto it and then sprays the whole thing
with an alcoholic drink or water, depending on the mission to be accomplished.”229 However,
if the peg penetrates a key body part (ear, head, neck, stomach, genitals or legs), the
“mission” accords with option (1).230 Consistent especially with option (3), Blier asserts that
“As with Kongo power figures, each peg signifies a particular idea or wish.”231 This reference
to nkisi operation, which is of course highly pertinent to our Vodun/Kongo inter-cultural
comparison, will be reprised in the next section. Some minkisi (e.g. Fig. 9) have mottled or
spotted surfaces consistent with chewed material having been spat over them, or at least with
having different coloured paints flecked at them to simulate exactly that kind of freckled
patina.
Jacques Kerchache favours option (1) and says of Fon bocio that “The little sticks [i.e., pegs]
were later replaced by locks.”232 Among the Ewe of Togo, Albert de Surgy reports that
“knots or padlocks indicate a will to subdue or prevent malefactors from acting.”233 While
conveying a sense of mission consistent with option (3), the main aim is to constrain the
intended victim in line with option (1), although de Surgy makes no mention of targeting a
specific body part with the placement of the knot or lock. Multiple locks are a common
feature; a malicious bo named Agbagli involves seventeen padlocks.234 Among the Fon,
Suzanne Preston Blier observes that “Bociɔ with multiple pegs or padlocks are thought to be
more potent than those with but a single closure.”235
Djimassé’s assertion about the modus operandi of padlocks in option (3) is that “The locks
are opened, sacred words (incantations) are uttered and requests are made before they are
closed again. Then they are sprayed with alcohol from the mouth and with chewed nuts.”236
In other instances, Guinea pepper seeds are chewed and then spat at the keyhole immediately
before the lock is closed.237 The idea that clicking the lock shut is what launches the mission
is supported by one of Blier’s informants, Dewui, who declares that “one says the thing and

23
closes the lock ... it is what one asks when closing the lock that the bociɔ will do. If the work
is powerful it will be done.”238 However, this view does not go unchallenged. A contrary
explanation of the operation of the locks is presented in Dark Matter, the catalogue of
William Harper’s Vodun collection; this source maintains that the client’s lock is opened
during the ritual and remains open until the client’s problem is resolved, whereupon it is
closed. The lock may either be closed on the bocio and left in place for posterity, or it may be
reclaimed by the client before it is closed and taken away.239 Albert de Surgy reports a
process for the multiple padlocks on a named Ewe bo which shares some features with
Djimassé’s procedure (e.g., the locks are closed during the ritual) and some with the one in
Dark Matter (e.g., the locks are left open after the ritual). Specifically, “Seven padlocks and
seven elongated metal whistles, with a very high pitch” feature in a malicious bo named
Abrayiböe.240 One ritual use of Abrayiböe involves seven whistle-blasts in succession, which
cause intense agitation in whichever individual has been nominated as the target, at which
time “one then takes the precaution of locking all the padlocks and removing the keys. [...]
When one has finished with the evocation, one opens the locks again.”241 An Ewe bo/vodu
bearing multiple padlocks and two metal police whistles is shown in Fig. 11. Whistles might
be used simply to call to the cognate bocio to attention at the beginning of a ritual.242
Consistent with the idea that a padlock “signifies a particular idea or wish” is the fact that a
(seemingly small) subset of Ewe power-figures bear multiple closed padlocks to which
tightly-folded papers have been attached (Figs. 4 & 11). The locks’ keys may be present too,
but are not inserted into the barrels. Each folded paper is firmly attached by many windings
of thin string or thread to the shackle (i.e., the hoop-shaped part) of a closed padlock;
presumably each paper bears a message, instruction or wish, or perhaps the name of the
client, or even the name of an individual whom the power-figure is to target.243 In keeping
with this interpretation, Albert de Surgy’s fieldwork in Togo has revealed that some Ewe
bo/vodu do require written depositions.244 For example, to obtain the restitution of a client
into a business or official capacity, the operator of a malicious bo called Agbagli must
prepare a written submission. “Around midnight, accompanied or not by the client, he goes
out naked, his bo in hand. He attaches [to it] with the cotton thread a piece of paper on which
he has written the name of the person to influence, then he evokes it again by restating what
he wants. He then deposits the bo in savannah or in a secret place of his house, on a shelf of
xeti wood.”245
Padlocks feature not only in Fon bocio and Ewe bo/vodu but also in some minkisi and related
Congolese fetishes. For example, a Vili magical figure from the DRC that dates from the first
half of the 20th century is embellished with padlocks, bedsprings, and a bead as well as the
usual nails, magic belly enclosure and string-bound accessories; it also bears an oily dark
brown sacrificial patina.246 Likewise, a large BaKongo nkisi nkondi from the same period
wears a chain necklace which contains “four padlocks that form a circle around the base of
the neck, three in front and one behind.”247 A protective mpungu power-figure collected from
the frontier region between the Lower Congo and Bandundu, near Angola – now in the
Tervuren Museum’s collection – is laden with padlocks.248

24
Fig. 11. Ewe bo/vodu, Togo, 20th century, 31 cm. Left: front view; Right: 90° rotation clockwise. Wooden fig-
ure with attachments (packets, padlocks & keys, cowrie shells, etc.), encrusted with dark sacrificial patina and
feathers (without laundry blue or indigo); almost certainly from the same fetishist as Fig. 4.249 Author’s
collection. It is not clear whether the large and incongruous circular mouth-hole was original to the statue or
added later, perhaps to accept a peg to assure silence/discretion or to accept cigarettes for the statue to smoke.250
From the two large police whistles at its front, one might suspect that this is a power-figure designed to catch
thieves or punish criminals – yet there is no certainty in such an attribution.251 Thus, among the Ewe of Togo, “a
magical sosi called Dudulölö [...] whose making required two little padlocks and seventeen police whistles” is
not a crime-busting device but rather an accessory of the complex vodu Karabi, one that “is able to restore life
to a dying person.”252 Perhaps the whistles link Dudulölö with breath – the breath to power so many whistles
may have been equated with the breath of life. On the figurine pictured here there are approx. 14 padlocks; these
are of many different brands, sizes and colours and exhibit different degrees of rusting or coating, suggesting
sequential addition over a long period. Uses of the figurine are unknown, but each padlock has a tightly-folded
paper (presumably bearing a name or request) tied securely to its hoop/shackle.

25
Another example is provided by Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz, who presents a Congolese
anthropomorphic Mpungu a Nkama (“Mpungu of One Hundred Powers”) from Angola with a
raffia ring (lukuba) at its base that is secured by several – seemingly three – padlocks, of
which two are visible in his photograph.253 (Some Vodun bocio, too, are encircled by three
padlocks.254) Mpungu is the Kongo term for the elemental force that surrounds us,255 but –
like the Ewe use of the word vodu – it here refers to a fetish possessed of such power.256 For
this item,
The metal locks attached to this foundation lukuba are used to seal problems and to open
up the channel that allows the Mpungu a Nkama to interact with both worlds and direct
the life forces enclosed inside it. [...] The locks create a second hidden triangle and [...
thereby] form a complete diamond that represents the world of the ancestors at the
bottom of the mpungu and symbolizes protection and all the positive things on earth.
[...] The locks are also used to open and close the mpungu’s dialogue with the spirits.
The locks are physically opened from top to bottom to initiate the communication and
closed from bottom to top to close the performance, a process that culminates with three
final claps as a sign of respect and completion.”257
Moreover, the process for operating this Kongo power-object conforms to some extent with
the interpretation in Dark Matter of padlock operation on bocio; with the mpungu, however,
the locks remain open only for the duration of the ritual, rather than for the time it takes for
the problem to be resolved. The closure of the locks could therefore be considered as locking
the mpungu to its mission. To the extent that this is true, the use of padlocks on the mpungu
would be consistent with Djimassé’s option (3) above for bocio. However, for Sagbadju –
one of Blier’s Vodun informants – closure of the lock on a bocio and resolution of the client’s
problem are simultaneous: “If something bothers you, when you close the padlock, nothing
more will bother you.”258 If the problem is solved immediately, much of the distinction
between Djimassé’s interpretation and the one in Dark Matter disappears.
The Mpungu a Nkama in Martínez-Ruiz’s book is partly figural, and the entire ensemble is
considered female – in fact, a female swollen through pregnancy. In this respect it parallels
Vodun wutuji-bocio, the “swollen or pregnancy works [... that] comprise another important
genre of bociɔ sculptures.”259 The relevance of this mpungu to minkisi in general is made
explicit by Martínez-Ruiz:
Mpungu a Nkama belongs to the same tradition of Kongo art as the nkisi featured by
scholars and displayed in museum collections, and many of the techniques utilized in
its production are directly linked to precedents documented in early descriptions of
Kongo art and related traditions in both the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.260
In other words: as for the padlocks on this mpungu, so too for those on minkisi and minkondi.
Nails and blades
Human figurines pierced with sharp metal objects for magical purposes have ancient
precedents; for example, the effigy shown in Fig. 12 dates from Roman Egypt (4th century
CE). It is an example of aggressive love magic that has been made in accordance with
instructions in the collection of magical documents known as the Papyri Graecae Magicae

26
 Fig. 12. Female figurine of unbaked clay pierced by thirteen needles, found with a lead defixio
in a clay pot; Egypt, 4th century CE. The figurine is made according to PGM IV, lines 296-329.
Louvre E 27145b,261 image © Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 2.5.262

(PGM).263 As with Kongo minkisi, “the immediate agent is the spirit of a dead man,” as we
can see from the following exhortation of the figure:
Do not fail, spirit of the dead man, Antinoos, but arouse yourself for me and go to every
place, into every quarter, into every house, and draw to me Ptolemais [i.e., the woman
desired by the client and represented by the effigy.] [...] If you accomplish this for me,
I will set you free.264

27
The effigy represents the target of the spell rather than the agent that is adjured to effect it,
just as the impaled nkondi represents what will befall the target of its retribution. This type of
ritual practice is an example of “sympathetic magic”265 or, in more modern terms,
“persuasive analogy.”266 In addition, Duncan Caldwell has suggested that the presence of
such injuries in a nkisi may signal the “supernatural warrior’s transcendental ability to
survive even the most violent provocations and excruciating combat in his zeal to fight for his
petitioners.”267
Some scholars believe that the tradition of piercing of a nkondi was influenced by Christian
representations of immolation and martyrdom. The Portuguese were distributing crucifixes in
the Congo as early as the end of the 15th century,268 and images of St. Sebastian pierced by
arrows were also common.269 “It is not known how much influence these Christian wares had
on Kongo sculpture at that time,”270 writes a representative of the Seattle Art Museum, but
clearly such Western depictions of nailing and piercing would have resonated with local
practices of violating minkondi with pieces of iron.271 Crucifixes were incorporated into
Vodun paraphernalia, too, where they underwent a radical shift in meaning.272
The blades and nails hammered into minkondi are called mbau. “Each represents an appeal to
the force represented in the figure, arousing it to action;”273 the metal insertions often carry
mfunya, a token (such as a strip of clothing or remnant of a stolen item)274 intended to draw
retribution upon a wrongdoer, even if their identity is unknown.275 Koma nloko means
“nailing a curse,”276 although verbal insults could achieve the same end.277 The insertion is
performed by the client, who often licks the nail or blade to personalise it before hammering
it in.278 As mentioned above, the result represents what will happen to the target of the
nkondi;279 nails in the chest “are statements of intention that the wrongdoer in the case shall
suffer terrible pains in the chest.”280 The process is therefore analogous to option 1 for bocio,
discussed in the previous section. For minkondi, a nsono denotes a “‘long, sturdy nail of iron
...; those with circular or square-sided heads were used when a person ‘tied mambu,’ that is,
sealed the arguments with [a] solemn vow.’”281 Mbeezi are blades; “‘those roughly
rectangular in shape, are nailed in affairs less serious than murder, ... when you want to unite
a person with your community.’”282 Other types of metal insertion are recognised – iron
screws, tied blades and nails, iron wedges shrouded in raffia cord, and so on – and each kind
has a specific function.283 Wyatt MacGaffey reports of one nkisi nkondi that “many nails
were inserted and later withdrawn when the missions with which they were associated were
deemed to have been accomplished. Practice in this regard varied from region to region, or
perhaps from nkondi to nkondi; the most common practice seems to have been to leave the
nails in.”284 The removing or leaving of a nail/blade in a nkondi at the conclusion of its task is
of course analogous to the removing or leaving of a padlock on a Vodun bocio/bo/vodu at the
completion of its mission, as discussed in the previous section.
For Kongo minkondi, writes Shawnya Harris, “A peg may refer to a matter being ‘settled’
whereas a nail, deeply inserted may represent a more serious offense such as murder.”285 If
she is correct, the act of inserting a peg into a nkondi would mirror the act of closing the

28
padlock on a bocio as interpreted in Dark Matter, i.e., resolution of the problem and closure.
For Vodun power-figures, however, piercing with wooden pegs and metal pins seem to be
regarded as equivalent.286 An exception would be where medicines are to be driven into a
specific part of the figure (previous section, option 2), for which pegs would be more
effective.
Bonds and sutures
Tying may be static, intended to show how the power of the medicines associated with a
power-figure are constrained, as seen in the next section. In Vodun, where cords are
associated with disempowerment, danger and death,287 tying may also reference the history of
slavery on the Guinea Coast. “Kannumon, ‘thing in cords,’ is the Fon term for slaves and
prisoners of war, a term that complements many bocio arts which similarly show prominent
forms of binding with cords, cloth, and/or chains, these items encircling specific figural body
parts (the belly and back, neck arms).”288 However, such tying can also represent a symbolic
interdiction of specific bodily functions: “Neck bindings are supposed to cause aphasia in the
adversary; chest bindings attack the breath of life, those around the lower abdomen attack
sexual potency and leg bindings lead to paralysis.”289 This is consistent with option 1 for peg
function, which was discussed above.
Tying can also conform to option 3 for peg function. In an earlier section, we noted Suzanne
Preston Blier’s assertion that Kongo minkondi may be equated with Vodun kpododonme
(pierced) bocio insofar as each nail or peg signifies a particular idea or wish.290 Tying
something onto a bocio can be used in the same way; Blier’s informant Sagbadju explains
that “When one ties it, one says what one would like to convey. Ones names the person as
one is attaching it.”291 Similarly, the Congolese nkisi nkondi – which is often used to record
oaths – requires the attachment of the human’s words to it, although again an actual written
record seems unnecessary: “When you go to speak to an nkisi n’kondi, you have to tie
everything you say to the nkisi. To do this, you can make a knot (kolo) on one peg (kinko) of
iron or wood.”292 Indeed, one can omit the peg/nail and use suturing alone. “In addition to the
variety of piercing techniques [...] there is an alternative and parallel process of using
different types of knot to record and address issues through a nkisi.”293 Bárbaro Martínez-
Ruiz notes that knotting (mazito) was more common than piercing in the religious objects that
he encountered in northwestern Angola during 1999-2013. As with iron piercings, there are
many different forms of knots. For example, nkeka kanga is “a single knot used to seal and
close one issue,” while mazita a tatu refers to “more than one knot tied in a row along a
single cord, used to deal with difficult issues.”294
Medicines
The medicines in/on a nkisi are termed bilongo. Their ingredients, which are often chosen for
linguistic and symbolic reasons rather than their true pharmacological properties, fall into
three classes. These are:
(1) earth and minerals such as kaolin (white clay) from graves and other places inhabited
by the dead;295
(2) leaves, seeds, fruits, etc., whose names resemble desired activities, e.g., luzibu (a grain)
gives the power of opening things (zibula);296 and

29
 (3) items that symbolise the nkisi’s power, such as carnivore teeth, raptor claws, snake-
heads, nets and cords.297
Fulfillment of category (1) meant that some minkisi were composed in the cemetery; indeed,
many included dirt from the grave of a person (not an ancestor) who had exhibited personal
qualities aligned with the character of the nkisi under construction.298 Similarly, some Ewe
bo/vodu require items from the corpse or grave of a “bad death,”299 although Albert de Surgy
claims that such relics are not intended to make the spirit of the dead person act, but rather to
bring down a similarly unpleasant fate upon the targeted person.300 On a lighter note,
category (2) has a long history on the African continent; the ancient Egyptians relished puns
and word-play and used a similar “phonetic logic” in their mythology and medicine.301
Similarly, Suzanne Preston Blier records that word-play is important in Vodun in the choice
of bocio accessories.302 In category (3) there is overlap with the accoutrements of bocio,
which include animal parts, these “drawing on both physical and metaphoric qualities to
enhance the power of a given work.”303 Accordingly, “animal fur, feathers, teeth, jaws, the
skins of snakes or other reptiles” are often included in bocio for reasons of power, e.g. “an
eagle’s claw gives strength.”304 Some ethnologists extend the list of classes by adding a
category (4) that consists of non-natural “spirit-admonishing material ideographs ... signs,
which told the contained spirit what to do.”305
The bilongo ingredients are usually put in a container whose exterior suggests constraint;
sometimes they are packed into cloth bags, resulting in bulging packets not unlike those
adorning the Ewe power-figures in Figs. 4 & 11.306 These can serve as non-figural minkisi in
their own right.307 They may also adorn anthropomorphic minkisi; one nkondi is festooned
with a dozen or so medicine packs, considered an unusually large number.308 For such
figures, however, “the medicines were usually contained in cavities or protuberances on the
head, on the belly, between the legs, on the back [...] The belly [...] is obviously an
appropriate place for medicines. They are usually sealed in with resin; the medicine pack
often has a mirror on the outside as a divination device [...and as ] ‘eyes for seeing.’”309
(Similarly, mirrors on Vodun bocio are associated with divination, “both in ‘seeing’ danger
and in ‘turning it back.’”310) The small nkisi in Fig. 6 contains white bilongo in a cylindrical
projection on its abdomen; the medicine is visible though a circular glass window, a popular
alternative to a mirror.311 Some 20th-century Yombe minkondi, about 70 cm high, have a
projecting abdominal barrel or box of this kind but also carry 25-50 small cloth “balloons” –
which presumably contain additional bilongo – secured to the statues’ trunks by a single nail
through the centre of each ball.312 The smaller Yombe nkisi nkondi shown in Fig. 9 has large
bilongo pouches at the back of the head and forward between its two legs, as well as a
cylindrical stomach projection which – once again – ends in circular glass window, although
this one is quite difficult to see through as its external surface is mottled/spotted as if chewed
material has been spat at it.313 An almost identically-shaped projection is found on the
abdomen of a Fon monkey bocio, which is described as “a type of reliquary. In a small round
box on the front of its body, the presence of mica can be glimpsed.”314 (Mica is a transparent

30
mineral that occurs in thin sheets and can be used in the same manner as glass.) Similar
attachments can sometimes be found in Vodun power-figures; for example, an
anthropomorphic Adja altar-figurine from Bénin has a large square-framed mirror covering
its abdomen.315 As with minkisi, many bocio have additive materials positioned on the
stomach, which for the Fon is the seat of emotion and a common target of witchcraft. 316
A nkisi is considered to inflict a specific disease and then, when suitably appeased by its
nganga, is able to permit or effect its cure.317 Of course, the patient must pay the nganga a
fee for performing the appeasement. As mentioned earlier, the same ambivalence is found
with Vodun power-objects; for example, among the Ewe, “As a rule ... all (works) ... which
can cure a sickness can bring on the same sickness and inversely.”318
Broader inter-cultural comparisons
There are similarities between West African Vodun and the East African/Middle Eastern zār
cult. Consider first this description of Vodun-derived ceremonies in the New World:
The Vodou gods or spirits, called lwa, are grouped into several “nations,” linked to areas
and peoples in Africa. Vodou temples in Haiti, and some in North America, are marked
by a sacred center pole. Intricate corn meal drawings called veve are traced on the
ground around the pole to summon individual spirits. On an altar, gifts of food and drink
are presented. Singing, drumming, and dance invoke particular spirits to become
manifest in one of the devotees. The spirit is said to “mount” and “ride” a devotee as
one might ride a horse. The movements, the voice, and the words of one so possessed
are understood to be those of the spirit. In this way, the lwa communicate with human
beings.319
Spirit possession by vodun in West Africa is described in the precisely same terms by Jacques
Kerchache, who writes: “Communication is established with a deity who becomes incarnate
in the possessed dancer whom it ‘rides.’”320 Others amplify the analogy thus: “During a
Voodoo ceremony, a spirit (Loa) will enter (ride) the individual. The person being possessed
considers being chosen by the spirit, to ride her/him as a horse into the physical world, to be
one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on him/her. Possession is seen as a way the
person is integrated into the community or group.”321 It is therefore most interesting to see
exactly the same equine metaphor being employed to describe spirit possession in the
Ethiopian zār cult: “In Gondar, the possessed body of the Zar spirit medium is referred to as
Yäzar Färäs (literally meaning ‘the horse of Zar.’) In this rhetoric, spirit possession can be
understood as the spirit riding the body of the medium.”322
The nails/blades of Kongo minkisi are probably reflected in the insertions that adorn some
“voodoo dolls” in the African diaspora – a further confounding of the Central and West
African traditions. “Kongo traditions such as those of the nkisi nkondi have survived over the
centuries and migrated to the Americas and the Caribbean via Afro-Atlantic religious
practices such as vodun, Palo Monte, and macumba. In Hollywood these figures have
morphed into objects of superstition such as New Orleans voodoo dolls covered with stick
pins.”323 Suzanne Preston Blier suggests that the effigies of European witchcraft (derived
perhaps from the ancient Mediterranean type exemplified by Fig. 12) are also likely to have

31
contributed to the genre that took root as a source of fear and horror in the popular
imagination of white North Americans.324
A number of modern African concepts have suggestive overlaps with ancient Egyptian belief.
For example, in Vodun there are “two compositions of the soul, one associated with life, the
other with death.”325 These are termed sɛ and yɛ, respectively; dripping the blood of a
sacrificed animal onto a bocio transfers the animal’s yɛ to the statue, thereby empowering
it.326 The division of labour in the sɛ/yɛ dual-soul concept is quite reminiscent of the
categories in the Egyptian kA/bA paradigm, where the kA is a generic “life force” while the bA
is a vehicle for survival of the personality after death.327 Moreover, among the Ewe of south
Togo, se is characterised as “a celestial genius [... which is] a modalization of the divine
intelligence that has a mission to help individuals to best realize their destiny,”328 which
makes an interesting convergence with the similarly-named Egyptian entity Sy (Shay), the
“god personifying destiny [... who] exists both as a concept and as a divinity.”329 The Vodun
Sakpata (Sagbata), the deity of smallpox who is associated with the leopard and whose colour
is red,330 is not unlike Sakhmet (Sekhmet), the Egyptian goddess of plague and pestilence, the
“mistress of red linen” who is portrayed as a lioness.331 In true African fashion, both deities
can heal disease as well as cause it.332 Despite these and other curious parallels with
pharaonic Egypt, some of which were adduced earlier, there is no credible evidence to
support the notion that ancient Egyptians migrated south to Nigeria or were the ancestors of
the Yoruba.333 At best, it is possible that a few ancient Egyptian concepts that reflected
durable and widespread African beliefs may have survived into modern times in West or
Central Africa. For example, “Ethnographic parallels for the [Egyptian] worship of the royal
placenta have been cited amongst the Baganda people of Uganda; the élite of this tribe are
Hamitic in origin, and therefore supposedly share elements of a common Hamitic belief-
system with the ancient Egyptians.”334 Overall, to quote Egyptologist John Baines, “Features
comparable with [ancient] Egypt can be seen in the polities of chiefdoms known typically
from Africa and Polynesia.”335 As luck would have it, Baines’ inclusion of Polynesia affords
a convenient segue to our next topic.
In Central Africa, a freshly-carved statuette that has not been empowered by a nganga “is not
yet an Nkisi, but only the basis for one; the person has bought a piece of sculpture, not an
Nkisi. This image or sculpture is called in the Eastern Kongo teke or teki.”336 Among the
Māori of New Zealand and other Polynesian people, a tiki is a carving in humanoid form. In
the past, “Large wooden tiki used to guard the entrance to a Maori pa (fortified place).”337
The figure is often that of a stocky man who stands with his legs bent at the knees, his hands
cradling a projecting stomach (Fig. 13)338 – very much like a nkisi cradling his abdominal
bilongo container. Of miniature pendant Māori tiki, which are usually carved from jade or
bone, we are told that “sometimes they act as talismen [i.e., talismans] to avert makutu
(witchcraft) and accident.”339 Presumably the similarity between the Kongo and Polynesian
term is just a coincidence, given the geographic remoteness of the Polynesian islands from
Africa340 – although the numerous similarities in masks and statuary shared by African and
Oceanic traditional societies must give one pause for thought.341 Another linguistic
coincidence attaches to the Fon word Yɛhwe, a synonym for the Vodun religion and for spirit;

32
Fig. 13. Stone tikis from the Marquesas Islands, the location where the tiki is thought to have appeared first in
Polynesia.342 Left: Tiki, 15 cm high, 18th century; Louvre 71.1887.50.1.343 Right: Tiki, ca. 1800-1820; Musée du
Quai Branly; photo by Sailko, CC BY 3.0.344

“Yɛhwe is ‘everything.”345 This term was preferred by European missionaries and was co-
opted to refer to the Christian church. While Dana Rush draws attention to the usage,346 she
does not seem to recognise that the affinity for the term probably lies (consciously or
otherwise) in its similarity to the Hebrew word for God, YHWH, which is most often vocalised
as Yahweh (and thence “Europeanised” to Jehovah).
Moving from word to image, Central and West African power-figures have clearly served as
an inspiration to some modern European painters – a phenomenon that can be seen as a
continuation and extension of the rapport established by Pablo Picasso with African masks in
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. The most striking examples that I am aware of are to be found
within the oeuvre of the Polish surrealist, Zdzisław Beksiński. Beksiński did not title his
paintings, but some of the living “fetish figures” in his dystopian – indeed, nightmarish –
scenes (e.g., Fig. 14) clearly draw upon the anthropomorphic statues that form the subject of
this paper: Vodun bocio and Kongo minkisi. As far as I am aware, this connection has not
previously been articulated, at least not in a formal manner. The accessories of Beksiński’s
“fetish figures” are overtly Christian, but the interpenetration of African and Christian
religious accessories is not without historical precedent. For a start, “The Portuguese

33
[Figure legend on next page]

34
Fig. 14. Surrealist paintings by the Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński.347 Previous page: Untitled, oil on hardboard,
1975; 87 x 73 cm.348 Above: Untitled, oil on hardboard, 1975; 122 x 98 cm.349 The small figure tethered frontally
to the adult female recapitulates “child” accessories in maternity bocio (see main text). Both images © Historical
Museum in Sanok, reproduced here by kind permission.

35
explorers called the rituals, including the [...] objects [...] which they encountered in Africa,
feitiço. In Portugal, this word was used to refer to amulets and relics of the saints. The
English word fetish comes directly from feitiço.”350 Moreover, as was remarked earlier in this
paper, Christian symbols such as crucifixes have been appropriated effortlessly by Vodun and
assimilated into its own ever-expanding visual vocabulary. Indeed, in the New World – as
mentioned earlier351 – the Vodun and Kongo religions have both become syncretised to some
extent with Roman Catholicism.

Conclusion
The comparison undertaken in this paper has found much in common between the Vodun
bocio/bo/vodu and the Kongo nkisi nkondi. It is clear that – while far from identical – these
two types of anthropomorphic African power-figure share notable similarities in purpose,
construction and operation. For example, both are inhabited by a spiritual agency and both
types of figurine are linked with death, one being identified as a corpse and the other as a
grave. Both act as protectors, guarding their owners’ and/or clients’ safety and wellbeing. The
indwelling spiritual agency functions ambivalently, inflicting a particular disease as well as
relieving it, and the figurine too is regarded with ambivalence, insofar as it represents both
avenger and victim. Both types of statue are usually festooned with piercings, bindings and/or
accessories, including medicine bags/boxes and animal parts, to the extent that their
accretion-laden surfaces are both disturbing and confronting. Both types of figurine are fed
animal – often chicken – sacrifices, whose blood and feathers form an unnerving sacrificial
patina, and both types are activated or calmed by having heating or cooling materials
transferred to them by spitting or libation. Padlocks feature in both Vodun and Kongo power-
figures, but are more common in the former. Closing a lock can have the same meaning as
inserting a peg into a bocio or hammering a nail into a nkondi, namely locking or rousing the
indwelling spirit to a specific mission; tying or knotting can achieve the same end.
At a more detailed level, however, conflicting information abounds, and much remains
ambiguous and uncertain. As Dana Rush declares, “Vodun and its spirits defy conventional
categorization.”352 Indeed,
Everything is questionable in Vodun. That which appears to be something may be
something else. [...] There are always many answers [...] The infinite variability in the
world of appearances empowers Vodun space. Correspondingly, one is never quite sure
of what anything is due precisely to the inherent potential in all things. [...] The only
thing that is certain within Vodun epistemologies is that nothing is certain.”353
Indeed, interpretive problems are especially acute with Vodun power-objects, since part of
their essence is deception.354
Suzanne Preston Blier says of bocio constituents that “each of these additive elements is part
of a unique visual vocabulary that is only known to the maker and user [... such that] each
work is unique, and ultimately ‘unknowable’ to those outside.”355 Blier came to believe that
“the works themselves are not meant ever to be ‘understood’ in a standard sense, but instead
remain enigmatic and obscure to local residents and foreign observers alike.”356 This echoes
Albert de Surgy’s warning about Ewe power-objects that “No one can therefore, by a
scientific method, become aware of the occult virtues of bodies, especially those of ama used

36
to make spiritual medicines and fetishes. He must normally acquire this knowledge from
someone who already possesses it.”357 The situation is the same in Kongo religion. “Minkisi
reveal an endless variety of interpretations within a certain framework of ideas [... such that]
no definitive reading of an undocumented nkisi can be made. As the BaKongo say, you
would have to be initiated to the nkisi in question.”358
But Duncan Caldwell, speaking of a BaKongo nkisi nkondi from the early 20th century, finds
that even outsiders can achieve some level of appreciation of the symbolism employed in the
construction and adornment of such power-figures. His analysis of this power-figure
uncovered
its hidden features, which turn the statue’s assemblage into a web of entrapping and
empowering metaphors. [...] Instead of flaunting these intriguing aspects, the nganga
deliberately embedded them deeply and intimately at the core of the metaphor-laden
trap, so that they would effectively draw someone’s spirit into the nkondi. [...]
Furthermore, the discovery of these hidden features – such as the horn palisade, wooden
antelope head, canine behind the neck, mpu under the helmet, necklace of padlocks,
canister under the buttocks, and cross composed of circles and semicircles – is likely to
lead to similarly concealed features on other minkondi, in which case the analysis will
have proven itself like a theory with predictive powers.359

For both Vodun and Kongo power-figures, even greater uncertainty attends the procedural
details of their manipulation. The variety of conflicting interpretations provided for the ritual
operation of pegs and padlocks on Vodun power-figures is a good example of this. It is
possible that some interpretations are erroneous, the result of misunderstandings between
African informants and Western interlocutors. But it seems more probable that the wide
spectrum of interpretations reflects a genuine diversity in praxis; for example, the
inconsistencies may well reflect regional variations in protocol and/or the existence of
different operating procedures for different bocio within the same cultural group.
Finally, it is worth noting that there is a commemorative dimension to large Kongo minkondi
that does not seem to be matched by Vodun bocio/bo/vodu. A major nkisi nkondi carries in its
body the physical records of its community’s oaths, treaties and pleas for retributive justice.
As early as 1886, Van de Velde recognized that such a power-figure was not an idol but “a
history book or communal archive.”360 Accordingly, “minkondi of such complexity are not
only aesthetic triumphs because of their tension between order and disorder and the richness
of their conceptions, but unintended metaphors for the work of historians, who deepen our
understanding of the past.”361 It seems that at least some Vodun power-figures – such as the
Ewe bo/vodu of Figs. 4 & 11 – do commemorate the history of their clientele by retaining the
padlocks and attached messages of requests that they have serviced. However, Vodun power-
figures of this kind do not seem to have existed on a community scale, nor would they have
been used to record oaths or treaties. This realisation offers a further dimension to claims
(mentioned earlier) that the typical nkondi is considered to speak whereas the typical bocio
remains silent; an important nkondi was, in a real sense, the voice of history for the
population that it served. Accordingly, despite the many similarities between West and
Central African power-figures, playing the role of “collective memory” to a community
seems to have been a unique prerogative of the Congo’s large-scale minkondi.

37
© Lloyd D. Graham 2019, excluding third party quotations/images; v01a_26.11.19.

Cite as: Lloyd D. Graham (2019) “A comparison of the anthropomorphic Vodun power-figure (West African
bocio / bo / vodu / tro) with its Kongo counterpart (Central African nkisi),” online at
https://www.academia.edu/41066476/A_comparison_of_the_anthropomorphic_Vodun_power-
figure_West_African_bocio_bo_vodu_tro_with_its_Kongo_counterpart_Central_African_nkisi_.

1
In this paper, “Guinea Coast” alludes to the historic Guinea Coast, i.e. the region that provides the northern
boundary to the Gulf of Guinea, especially the coast and hinterland of the Bight of Bénin.
2
The modern Republic of Benin (République du Bénin), not the city of Benin in Nigeria.
3
I use the term “fetish” reluctantly; MacGaffey (1993), 32; Hackett (1996), 141-142.
4
Formerly named Zaire.
5
MacGaffey (1993), 23 (Fig).
6
Ethnologisches Institut der Universität Zürich (1999) Tribal map “Identifikation Zentralafrika,” online at
http://www.randafricanart.com/files/Central_Africa.pdf; African Museum map of tribe locations, online at
http://www.aplusafricanart.com/MAP_TOA.html (its original URL,
http://www.africanmuseum.org/map.php, is no longer active).
7
Map titled “Africa Ethnic Groups 1996,” online at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_of_Africa#/media/File:Africa_ethnic_groups_1996.jpg.
8
Douaoui (2011).
9
Blier (1995).
10
Neyt & Dubois (2013).
11
MacGaffey (1993).
12
Tollebeek (2010).
13
Blier (1995), 2, 67 & 357-358; Rush (2103), 51, 57 & 65-78.
14
Augé (2011), 211.
15
Kerchache (2011a), 21.
16
Rush (2013), 77.
17
Blier (1995), 38-39 & 105; Rush (2013), 51 & 73-76; Rosenthal (1998), 263.
18
Kerchache (2011a), 19.
19
Rush (2013), 65.
20
Forte (2009), 441 & fn.30. All of the dancer photographs in Anisha Shah (2017) “Inside West Africa's
Vanishing Voodoo Rituals – The World’s Most Secretive and Misunderstood Religion” are actually egungun
performances in Bénin; see online at https://www.businessinsider.com.au/photographs-of-west-africas-
vanishing-voodoo-rituals-2017-5. So too are Figs. 3.8-3.9 in Rush (2013).
21
Ono (2011), 59-61, 67-68, 128, 136, 142-145, 147, 150-151, 156-157, 159-160, 167, 171, 177, 183, 185-187;
Djimassé (2011), 203 (Fig. 2); Blier (2011), 199.
22
Rosenthal (1998), 19.
23
De Surgy (1994), 21-22.
24
Blier (1995), 2-4.
25
Some sources distinguish BaKongo from Kongo groups, e.g. the Ethnologisches Institut der Universität
Zürich (1999) tribal map “Identifikation Zentralafrika” hosted by Rand African Art, online at
http://www.randafricanart.com/files/Central_Africa.pdf.
26
De Surgy (1994), 21-22.
27
QCC Art Gallery, 77.
28
Wikimedia Commons – Brooklyn Museum 49.45 Bocio, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_49.45_Bocio_(5).jpg.
29
Blier (1995), 273.
30
Kerchache (2011b), 31.
31
Wikimedia Commons – Benin, Fon, Statuetta Bocio, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bénin,_fon,_statuetta_bocio,_xx_sec._01.JPG.
32
De Surgy (1994), 212, 215, 224-225 & 277.

38
33
De Surgy (1994), 286.
34
De Surgy (1994), 322 & 332.
35
De Surgy (1994), 354. For a separate discussion of the ingredients, see de Surgy (1993).
36
De Surgy (1994), 402. However, most Ewe fetishes are non-anthropomorphic; de Surgy (1994), 21-22.
37
Strictly speaking, bocio is a Fon term and ought not to be applied to Ewe power-figures. However, art
catalogues often use the hybrid term “Ewe bocio;” e.g. Cavin Morris Gallery (2015a), 71-72 (cat. Af 330).
38
Arte Magica Galerie –Vodun fetish from Togo and Benin, code 777; online at
http://www.artemagica.nl/fetish. More examples bear out the assertion in Cavin Morris Gallery (2015b), and
the truth of the assertion is also evident from items in the Hamill Gallery website, e.g. Ewe Style Fetish
Figure 3, Ghana, online at https://www.hamillgallery.com/EWE/EweFetishes/EweFetish03.html. See also
Blier (1995), Figs. 31 & 124, for examples of open mouths on Ewe figures.
39
Rush (2103), 41.
40
Tollebeek (2010), 89.
41
Bassani (1977).
42
MacGaffey (1993), 69. On classes of minkisi, see Volavkova (1972).
43
MacGaffey (1993), 69-71; Leyten (2015), 54.
44
MacGaffey (1993), 69-71.
45
MacGaffey (1993), 72 & 98-99 incl. Fig. 63; Vanhee (2019), 55-56 & 58-59.
46
MacGaffey (1993), 72-76; Leyten (2015), 56-58.
47
MacGaffey (1993), 35; Cole (2016).
48
MacGaffey (1993), 79-86; Berzock (2003).
49
The Ewe term tro is sometimes rendered as etro, tron or thron; Rosenthal (1998), 266, Rush (2013), 78.
While these terms may be used generically as synonyms for vodu or bo, tron/thron is now strongly identified
with a specific and relatively recent branch of Vodun called Gorovodu, which is strongest in Ghana and
Togo; Rush (2013), 78-84; Rosenthal (1998), 264-265. As indicated later in the main text, a gorovodu is the
divinized spirit of a specific foreigner who – when alive – was typically a slave from the north. The
Gorovodu religious complex in its entirety is often called Tron or Thron. Originally its diffusion along the
Guinea Coast was associated with witch-hunting, and anti-witchcraft activities are still central to the cult as
it offers wealth and protection from adversity; Forte (2009), 439 fn.24. Accordingly, some see Tron as “a
generic term for all the anti-witchcraft cults from northern Ghana” now present on the Guinea Coast; Tall
(2014).
50
Hereafter BaKongo/Kongo will be abbreviated to BaKongo. Kongo will be used to denote the culture/religion
of the region.
51
Ethnologisches Institut der Universität Zürich (1999) Tribal map “Identifikation Zentralafrika,” online at
http://www.randafricanart.com/files/Central_Africa.pdf; African Museum map of tribe locations, online at
http://www.aplusafricanart.com/MAP_TOA.html.
52
See previous endnote.
53
Rand African Art – Bakongo/Kongo – Nkondi or Nkonde nail fetish, online at
http://www.randafricanart.com/Bakongo_Nkondi_figure.html.
54
Neyt (2009).
55
Vilaire (2011), 219-221.
56
De Surgy (1994), 175. Similarly, the Fon informant Sagbadju says: “One takes the earth and places it in
white, red, and black cloths. Next, one looks for the leaves of the vodun and places them in the different
cloths. Following this, one takes a piece of thread and attaches the filled cloths to the figure. Finally, one
kills the animals which one has been asked to offer – the goats and chickens.” Blier (1995), 268.
57
De Surgy (1994), 224.
58
E.g., de Surgy (1994), 200, 212-213, 226-227, 288, 299, 325 & 372-373.
59
It was possible to remove this but it could not be unfolded due to self-adhesion (presumably it had become
wet at some stage) and fragility (insect worm-holes).
60
Blier (1995), 194 & 302.
61
Beads are associated with bocio that represent vodun; Blier (1995), 254. “Of one work associated with the
serpentine wind and rainbow god, Dan, Blier’s informant Ayido noted that “it has Dan’s beads around his
neck, and cowries on his face;” Blier (1995), 302.
62
Dan is associated with cord-like structures; Blier (1995), 201.

39
63
Dan is linked with rainbows; Augé (2011), 215. Polychrome fabric – “described locally as any multicoloured
material characterised by stripes, spots or patterns in a combination of red, white black or other colours”
[Blier (1995), 269] is much in evidence on this bocio. It “‘symbolizes the plenitude of the vital dynamism
and its manifestation because it recalls the rainbow.’ As such it is closely associated with the deity
Ayidowedo, the rainbow serpent [...;] ‘the abundance of colours (of the rainbow) is the symbol of abundance
of riches which this serpent can bring.’ Because of this wealth association, polychrome is a frequently
requested color in bocio cloth coverings.” [Blier (1995), 269]. Ayidowedo is a deity identified or syncretised
with Dan [Rush (2013) 62-64], often envisaged as his consort [Brown (2009)].
64
Dan is the dispenser of the wealth of the world, which may relate to the attachment of cowries (currency) by
knotted cords on the chest of the bocio; Blier (1995), 200. On cowries as currency, see Blier (1995), 254-
255; on cowries to beautify Vodun bocio, see Blier (1995), 258.
65
Blier (1995), 201.
66
The spark-plug may also relate to the belief that Dan “serves Hevioso by guiding his lightning down to earth;”
Augé (2011), 215.
67
Blier (1995), 208. “Turtles and tortoises, notable for their protective shells, encourage problems to disappear
and opposition to be ineffective;” Blier (2011), 197.
68
Blier (1995), 221.
69
Blier (1995), 307-308, quoting her informant Sagbadju. Bocio oracles predate the arrival of Fa divination
among the Fon; Blier (1995), 105-106.
70
Indeed, it seems that Christian missionary activity in Africa had already precipitated syncretism even there;
Volavkova (1972), 55.
71
“Santeria has strong Kongo components;” MacGaffey (1993), 68; “The Haitian religion of vodou [...] is
based in part on the traditions of the Kongo and other African peoples;” Cole (2016). For the paquet-kongo
and other Congolese elements in Haitian Voodoo, Blier (1995), 50 & 52.
72
Rush (2013), 1 & 10.
73
Dana Rush expected that the repatriated Brazilians would have introduced Santeria-derived practices into
local Vodun or Yoruba traditions in Africa. She writes: “Within West African Brazilian culture, I anticipated
finding a mélange of African-Brazilian religious art and expression returned to Bénin and reintegrated into
local traditions. I found nothing of the sort. Brazilians I spoke with were either Catholic or Muslim.” Rush
(2013), 1.
74
Rush (2013), 11.
75
Rush (2013), 4-11.
76
Augé (2011).
77
Harper (2012), 6; Forte (2009), 430 fn.3.
78
Augé (2011), 213.
79
Augé (2011), 214-215. Compare the above-mentioned division of Kongo minkisi into those of “the above”
(sky) and those of “the below” (earth/sea).
80
For vodunsi, see Kerchache (2011a), 22; for bokono, see Vilaire (2011), 219.
81
Montgomery (2016).
82
Janzen (1987).
83
MacGaffey (1993), 27; Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 30-33.
84
PHILTAR – Overview Of World Religions – Kongo Religion, online at
http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/sub/kongo.html; Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 30-33. That the world of the
dead is below, see MacGaffey (1993), 50.
85
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 31.
86
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 159.
87
For Mangaaka, see MacGaffey (1993), 33.
88
Wikimedia Commons – WLA Metmuseum Kongo Power Figure Nkisi Nkondi, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WLA_metmuseum_Kongo_Power_Figure_Nkisi_NKondi_2.jpg.
89
Ross Archive of African Images – Parent Record – No. 1117, online at
http://raai.library.yale.edu/site/index.php?globalnav=image_detail&image_id=768.
90
Wikimedia Commons – British Museum Room 25 Nkisi Kongo people 19th century, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_Room_25_Nkisi_Kongo_people_19th_century_
17022019_4979.jpg (left panel) and

40
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_Room_25_Nkisi_Kongo_people_19th_century_
Detail_17022019_4987.jpg (right panel).
91
For vodu, see de Surgy (1994), 18-22. For nkisi, see Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 150-151; MacGaffey (1993), 27.
92
Blier (1995), 114.
93
MacGaffey (1993), 63; Volavkova (1972), 54.
94
De Surgy (1994), 221.
95
Leyten (2015), 52-53.
96
Blier (1995), 269.
97
Blier (1995), 269; Nyehaus (2012), 86.
98
Blier (1995), 164.
99
Volavkova (1972), 58-59.
100
Perkinson (2007), 368. No doubt the white colour of bones underpins, or at least reinforces, the association.
101
MacGaffey (2001), 145. White also symbolises purity and moral correctness; Walker (2009), 206 (#72).
102
Kerchache (2011a), 22.
103
MacGaffey (1993), 49. He observes that such initiation was often undertaken in response to an illness
associated with that nkisi.
104
MacGaffey (1993), 50.
105
Blier (1995), 158.
106
Blier (1995), 157-158.
107
MacGaffey (1993), 65.
108
Martínez-Ruiz (2000) & Martínez-Ruiz (2013).
109
Grabill (2019).
110
Accordingly, one cannot exclude the possibility that the entirety of Afro-Caribbean graphic writing
originated primarily or solely in the Kongo system.
111
Smithsonian – National Museum for African Art – Inscribing Meaning – Beyond the Object,
https://africa.si.edu/exhibits/inscribing/object.html.
112
Smithsonian – National Museum for African Art – Inscribing Meaning – Beyond the Object,
https://africa.si.edu/exhibits/inscribing/object.html; Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 68-81.
113
LinkedIn – Slideshare – Mario Hurtado – 108 Firmas de Palo Monte, online at
https://es.slideshare.net/mariohurtado31/89-108-firmas-de-palo-monte.
114
Martínez-Ruiz (2000), 102-103 & Fig. 55.
115
Wikimedia Commons – Veve Brigitte, online at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VeveBrigitte.png.
116
Wahlman (2004), 925.
117
New LCO Lukumi Church of Orishas] Community Boards – Discussion Areas – Voodun – Vodun-Palo,
post of 31 Dec, 2003, by SantoCristoBuenViaje, online at
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/newlcocommunityboards/vodun-palo-t1927.html.
118
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 192.
119
Conley (2008).
120
Compare Tables 5 & 10 in Martínez-Ruiz (2013).
121
Blier (1995), 83, 88 & 194-204. Only non-royal bocio are considered here; for royal bocio, see Blier (1995),
315-346 & 350-354.
122
Blier (1995), 67.
123
Blier (1995), 69-70.
124
Rosenthal (1998), 264-265. Goro means “kola nut” and the basic shrine consists of seven of these nuts; Rush
(2013), 80. Gorovodu is in fact the focus of Judy Rosenthal’s book Possession, Extasy, and Law in Ewe
Voodoo [Rosenthal (1998)]. Gorovodu has many overlaps with Tchamba Vodun, which also venerates the
spirits of slaves from the north, and for which kola nuts are also significant; Rush (2013), 111-124.
Rosenthal describes the Mama Tchamba cult as “a cousin to Gorovodu worship;” Rosenthal (1998), 251
(note 3).
125
Blier (1995), 100-101.
126
Blier (1995), 2; Djimassé (2011), 202.
127
Kerchache (2011b), 30; Blier (1995), 97 & 99.
128
Blier (2011) 194; Blier (1995), 125 & 273-279.

41
129
Blier (1995), 70, 145 & 309-311.
130
Volavkova (1972). For a major nkisi the ritualist would be a nganga, but for small and cheap ones a bilongo
merchant might have sufficient knowledge; MacGaffey (1993), 49.
131
MacGaffey (1993), 61.
132
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 150.
133
MacGaffey (1993), 49.
134
MacGaffey (1993), 27; Tollebeek (2010), 71.
135
In Haitian Voodoo, cloth dolls – the Caribbean successors to bocio – are often brought to the cemetery to
activate their power; Blier (1995), 50 & Fig. 29.
136
MacGaffey (1993), 32 (Fig. 11) & p.35-39.
137
“J. H. Weeks mentioned that there may have been simultaneously in use 1000 charms and fetishes of a
particular name;” Volavkova (1972), 58.
138
Kerchache (2011b), 30; Djimassé (2011), 201.
139
Blier (1995), 14, 20, 95-132, 276 & 348; Henderson (2014), 63. There much slippage and overlap between
the categories of “owner” and “client.” A person who buys a power-figure from a ritualist (or has him
activate a sculpture bought for the purpose) is a client of the ritualist, but the client goes on to becomes the
owner of the fetish. Alternatively, a client may visit a ritualist who consults or manipulates one of his (i.e.,
the ritualist’s) power-figures on the client’s behalf. In addition, a ritualist will routinely operate some of his
own fetishes on his own behalf, e.g. for self-protection against witchcraft, in which case the owner, client
and ritualist are one and the same person. My policy in respect of this vexed issue has been to preserve the
term used (or implied) in the source being cited.
140
Kerchache (2011b), 29.
141
Blier (2011), 196.
142
MacGaffey (2000), 105-106.
143
E.g. Djimassé (2011), 205-206.
144
MacGaffey (2000), 106.
145
Blier (1995), 73.
146
Blier (1995), 74-82.
147
Tollebeek (2010), 22 & 112 (no. 41).
148
Tollebeek (2010), 82 (no. 9); Leyten (2015), 52.
149
Blier (1995), 163 & 352.
150
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 165-166; Martínez-Ruiz (2000), 105; Rand African Art – Nkondi or Nkonde Nail
Fetish – Large Nailed Statues, the “Nkonde” or “Nkondi,” online at
http://www.randafricanart.com/Bakongo_Nkondi_figure.html.
151
MacGaffey (1993), 90.
152
On the circular open mouth of Fig. 11, see comment in the figure legend (and footnote thereto).
153
Blier (1995), 308.
154
Blier (1995), 93.
155
One cannot be certain that the bottom parts of spiked bocio have not been sawn off for ease of display by
Western collectors, but the good condition of this bocio suggests that it has always enjoyed an indoor
location.
156
Blier (1995), 93.
157
Kerchache (2011b), 34.
158
Volavkova (1972), 58.
159
Volavkova (1972), 58.
160
MacGaffey (1993), 87.
161
Leyten (2015), 58.
162
E.g., Nyehaus (2012), 72-73.
163
E.g., Nyehaus (2012), 74-79.
164
Blier (1995), 33 & 306.
165
Schoffel (2014), 24-25.
166
MacGaffey (1993), 36-37.
167
MacGaffey (1993), 37.
42
168
MacGaffey (2001), 145 fn.18.
169
Blier (1995), 16.
170
Blier (1995), 367 fn.28.
171
Nyehaus (2012), 132.
172
Caldwell (2018), 273.
173
Neyt & Dubois (2013), 11 (map); Ehret (2001).
174
Beleza et al. (2005), 367.
175
Beleza et al. (2005), 367.
176
Blier (1995), 367 fn.28.
177
Vilaire (2011), 221
178
MacGaffey (1993), 90; Tollebeek (2010), 105.
179
Blier (2011), 194.
180
Kerchache (2011a), 23.
181
Blier (1995), 1-2.
182
Blier (1995), 272.
183
Blier (1995), 273.
184
Blier (1995), 59.
185
Kerchache (2011a), 22-23.
186
Rush (2013), 6.
187
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 151.
188
“...with a bit of mirror set into the belly, behind which is the bit of rubbish containing the potent power;”
MacGaffey (1993), 33.
189
MacGaffey (1993), 63.
190
MacGaffey (1993), 67.
191
MacGaffey (1993), 89.
192
Caldwell (2018).
193
Bouttiaux & Ghysels (2008), 233-240.
194
MacGaffey (1993), 76.
195
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 2002.526a-e.
196
Mallinckrodt & Mellon (2018).
197
For a shrine showing both forms, see Rush (2013), Fig. 1.6; for an online image, see Africa Guide – Dankoli
fetish, online at https://www.africaguide.com/photolibrary/index.php?ItemID=5767&view_my_photos=296
or Exploring Africa – SafariAdv – Dankoli, online at https://www.exploring-
africa.com/sites/default/files/uploads/article/365/gallery/altari-voodoo-vudu-Bénin-exploringafrica-
safariadv-romina-facchi-dankoli.jpg.
198
Tambour Original, online at http://www.tambour-original.com/en/.
199
A more recent parallel problem is the adaptation (or, as some see it, adulteration) of traditional rituals to cater
for viewing – or even participation – by Western tourists; Forte (2009).
200
E.g. Hamill Gallery – Fon Style Fetishes, online at
https://www.hamillgallery.com/FON/FONFETISHES/FonFetishes1.html.
201
E.g. Cosgrove (2018a).
202
Cosgrove (2018b).
203
Cosgrove (2018b).
204
Blier (1995), 213.
205
Indigo, a natural dye which can produce a dark blue, dulls over time. A non-fading alternative became
available in the middle of the 19th century, namely Reckitt’s Blue. This was a domestic bleaching agent
containing ultramarine, originally manufactured by Reckitt & Sons in England from 1840, and primarily
sold as a textile whitener (“laundry blue”); Claessens (2015). Ultramarine was originally made from ground
lapis lazuli (lazurite, Na8Ca8Al6Si6O24S4O8Cl2) but for bulk applications – such as laundry blue – a cheaper
synthetic substitute (Na6-10Al6Si6O24S2-4) was developed; Bauer (2018).
206
Prof. Thomas Keller has investigated this in Keller (2018). On blue-coated terracotta statuary from Bénin,
see also Keller (2019). For the author’s homepage and biography, see Statuary-in-Context – Blog, online at
http://www.statuary-in-context.ch/.

43
207
For a photo of such statues in the home of a Vodun priest in Ouidah, Bénin, see Flickr – Linda De Volder –
The Home of a Fetish Priest, online at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindadevolder/32689351270/in/photostream/.
208
Flickr – jbdodane – Voodoo market near Abomey, Benin,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbdodane/10292916535.
209
Nyehaus (2012), 86.
210
Shikra – Bocio (Ewe?, Togo), online at
https://www.shikra.de/product_info.php?products_id=462&cPath=2_159_204&imgID=4&language=en&X
TCsid=kr7cjm1bt9vao75cv1vs9v53c2. For other uses of laundry blue by Ewe ritualists, see (for example) de
Surgy p.157, 200, 250-255, 256-257 & 372-376.
211
Château Musée Vodou – Zoom d’Objets – Gambada, online at http://www.chateau-vodou.com/fr/gambada/.
212
Hamill Gallery – Bakongo Style Fetishes Archives, Congo, online at
https://www.hamillgallery.com/BAKONGO/BakongoFetishes/BakongoFetishes.html.
213
For example, a mid-20th century Yombe nkondi from the Albert H. Chambon collection offered for sale by
Galerie ArtsPremiers (Braine-le-Comte, Belgium) bears traces of blue on its front, in a manner consistent
with ritual addition; Ebay – Galerie ArtsPremiers BE – Statue Nkisi Nkonde YOMBE Fetish Fétiche
CONGO (RDC/DRC), Ebay item number 163907557060, online at https://www.ebay.com/itm/Statue-Nkisi-
Nkonde-YOMBE-fetish-fetiche-CONGO-RDC-
DRC/163907557060?hash=item2629a6d6c4:g:B0EAAOSwSgFdptdv; accessed 26 Oct 2019.
214
Blier (1995), 249 for pegs in bocio.
215
Cited by Caldwell (2018), 271.
216
Caldwell (2018), 271; Volavkova (1972), 56.
217
Blier (1995), 8.
218
The issue of time-depth was considered more broadly in the previous section.
219
Kerchache (2011c), 43.
220
Blier (2011), 195; similarly, Blier (1995), 240-241.
221
Djimassé (2011), 203-206.
222
Blier (2011), 195
223
Blier (1995), 161.
224
Blier (1995), 292.
225
Blier (1995), 289. The complexity of the situation is evident from other instances cited by Blier, such as
Sagbadju’s assertion that a figure with a peg in its chest helps to calm one and brings well-being; Blier
(1995), 292.
226
Blier (1995), 249.
227
Blier (1995), 251.
228
Blier (1995), 289.
229
Djimassé (2011), 206 (Figs. 8 & 9).
230
Djimassé (2011), 206-208.
231
Blier (1995), 289.
232
Kerchache (2011c), 40.
233
De Surgy (1994), 55.
234
De Surgy (1994), 258.
235
Blier (1995), 292.
236
Djimassé (2011), 203-204.
237
Djimassé (2011), 205.
238
Blier (1995), 291.
239
Nyehaus (2012), 136.
240
De Surgy (1994), 256.
241
De Surgy (1994), 257.
242
De Surgy (1994), 128.
243
The sacrificial patina has infused the tightly folded papers and caused them to set hard, precluding their
opening for inspection.
244
De Surgy (1994), 238, 252, 254, 289 & 292.
245
De Surgy (1994), 260.
44
246
Originally sold by Le Fevre Gallery in Brussels. Recently resold by OldPaleos, Ebay – OldPaleos – An Old
Vili Magical Figure, online at https://www.ebay.com/itm/AN-OLD-VILI-MAGICAL-FIGURE-R-D-
CONGO/323657011387?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D2013
1003132420%26meid%3D9ee72f4675f6430a84028eefbfee2d98%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3
D10%26sd%3D323664449598%26itm%3D323657011387&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851, accessed
Jan 2019.
247
Caldwell (2018), 275 & Fig. 7 legend.
248
Canadian Museum of History – Archived Content – Ritual Messengers – Featured Artifacts – Ritual Figures,
online at https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cultur/tervuren/tera01e.html.
249
The two items were acquired in quick succession from the same dealer, and both display a tightly-folded
paper (presumably bearing a name or request) tied securely to the shackle/hoop of each padlock.
250
For a nearly identical situation in a Fon bocio couple where the circular holes accept tethered pegs, see
Aguttes (2014), 39 (lot 84). For two examples of bocio smoking cigarettes (in the home of a Vodun priest in
Ouidah, Bénin), see Flickr – Linda De Volder – The Home of a Fetish Priest, online at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindadevolder/32256659383/in/photostream/ and
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindadevolder/32945070261/in/photostream/. Another photo in the same
sequence seems to show a third bocio (at left of image) with a similar “cigarette hole” to that in Fig. 11, but
without any cigarette present; Flickr – Linda De Volder – The Home of a Fetish Priest,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindadevolder/32689351270/in/photostream/.
251
Of the components making up a fetish, we are told “Although they must find some echo in the minds of their
users, it would be an exaggeration to believe that they were chosen by applying spontaneously or
deliberately a symbolic code according to which they would be explicable;” de Surgy (1994), 54.
252
De Surgy (1994), 356.
253
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 173 (Fig. 122).
254
Ono (2011), 136 & 185; Djimassé (2011), 203 (Fig. 2); Vilaire (2011), 225 (Fig. 15).
255
Colon (2018).
256
The term kimpungulu, given earlier in the main text as meaning “spirits,” is the plural of mpungu;
Association of Independent Readers & Rootworkers (2014).
257
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 175.
258
Blier (1995), 291.
259
Blier (1995), 279-282.
260
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 176.
261
Louvre – Ensemble Magique, online at
http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=28021.
262
Wikimedia Commons – Voodoo Doll Louvre E27145b, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Voodoo_doll_Louvre_E27145b.jpg.
263
PGM IV, lines 296-329; translated by Betz (1992), 44.
264
Gager (1992), 97-100 (no. 28).
265
Frazer (1925), 11-47.
266
Tambiah (1985), 60-86.
267
Caldwell (2018), 275.
268
Bassani (1977).
269
Seattle Art Museum – Collections – Standing Figure (Nkondi) & The Crucifixion: European and Kongo
Versions, online at http://art.seattleartmuseum.org/objects/9265/standing-figure-
nkondi;jsessionid=5CF4D53B470E26AB03C21EC919D8150D.
270
Seattle Art Museum – Collections – Standing Figure (Nkondi) & The Crucifixion: European and Kongo
Versions, online at http://art.seattleartmuseum.org/objects/9265/standing-figure-
nkondi;jsessionid=5CF4D53B470E26AB03C21EC919D8150D.
271
Volavkova (1972), 55-56.
272
Noret (2011), 99-100.
273
MacGaffey (1993), 44.
274
MacGaffey (1993), 76-79, 84 & 101 incl. Fig. 64a,b.
275
MacGaffey (1993), 27 & 95.
276
MacGaffey (1993), 27 & 80.
277
MacGaffey (1993), 79-80.
45
278
MacGaffey (1993), 90; Neyt & Dubois (2013), 45 & 237 (no. 11); Tollebeek (2010), 77 (no. 7).
279
MacGaffey (1993), 83-84.
280
MacGaffey (1993), 89. This identification of the nkisi as representing the intended target/victim contrasts
with the common identification of Vodun bocio as representing the owner/client, i.e. the person who is
protected; Blier (1995), 97. However, bocio sometimes depict the owner’s/client’s enemy or the vodun that
empowers the statue; Blier (1995), 97.
281
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 167.
282
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 167; Caldwell (2018), 283-284.
283
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 168-169.
284
MacGaffey (1993), 35.
285
Harris (2015).
286
Blier (1995), 287-292.
287
Blier (1995), 244 & 293.
288
Blier (2011), 194. Similarly Blier (1995), 26, 244 & 293.
289
Kerchache (2011c), 40.
290
Blier (1995), 289.
291
Blier (1995), 82.
292
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 167.
293
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 168.
294
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 168 & 171.
295
MacGaffey (1993), 61-62.
296
MacGaffey (1993), 62 & 98.
297
MacGaffey (1993), 39 & 68.
298
MacGaffey (1993), 61.
299
“Someone who perhaps drowned, was burned, or was killed in an accident;” Nyehaus (2012), 136.
300
De Surgy (1994), 55 (incl. fn.1).
301
“Every Egyptian wordplay [...] reveals a deep affinity between the entities that are associated, showing the
‘harmony’ of the world which is reflected in language.” Hornung (1982), 67 & 149-150. Similarly, Hellum
(2105).
302
Blier (1995), 106-110; Blier (2011), 196.
303
Blier (2011), 196-197.
304
Kerchache (2011a), 23.
305
Martínez-Ruiz (2013), 162.
306
MacGaffey (1993), 63.
307
MacGaffey (1993), 63 (Fig. 43).
308
MacGaffey (1993), 99-101 incl. Fig. 64a,b.
309
MacGaffey (1993), 43 & 65; similarly Tollebeek (2010), 21 & 71.
310
Blier (1995), 106.
311
As in, e.g., MacGaffey (1993), 66 (Fig. 45).
312
One example is a nkondi from the Albert H. Chambon collection offered for sale by Galerie Artspremiers
(Braine-le-Comte, Belgium): Ebay – Galerie ArtsPremiers BE – Statue Nkisi Nkonde Yombe Fetish Fétiche
Congo (RDC/DRC), eBay item number 163907557060, online at https://www.ebay.com/itm/Statue-Nkisi-
Nkonde-YOMBE-fetish-fetiche-CONGO-RDC-
DRC/163907557060?hash=item2629a6d6c4:g:B0EAAOSwSgFdptdv. For another example, this time on the
US market: Ebay – rya_stomm – Yombe Power Figure Nkisi Nkonde Fetish Kongo Africa 28 inches, eBay
item number 264509322229, online at https://www.ebay.com/itm/264509322229?ul_noapp=true.
313
This surface treatment was discussed earlier in the section titled Pegs and padlocks.
314
Kerchache (2011c), 42; Ono (2011), 131-133 & 185.
315
Schoffel (2014), 16, central figure; close-up on p.22-23. “This bochio is placed near a sick individual to repel
external influences. The mirror serves to identify the evil-doer who is the cause of his illness.”
316
Blier (1995), 139-145 & 282.
317
MacGaffey (1993), 68.
318
Suzanne Preston Blier, quoting de Surgy: Blier (1995), 114.
46
319
Pluralism Project, Harvard University – America’s Many Religions – Afro-Caribbean Traditions – Vodou,
Serving the Spirits, online at http://pluralism.org/religions/afro-caribbean/afro-caribbean-traditions/vodou-
serving-the-spirits/.
320
Kerchache (2011a), 21.
321
LoveToKnow – Paranormal – Paranormal Phenomena – Understanding Voodoo Possession, undated post by
Sally Painter, online at https://paranormal.lovetoknow.com/about-paranormal/understanding-voodoo-
possession.
322
Films by Itsushi Kawase – Filmography – When Spirits Ride Their Horses (28 min, 2012), online at
http://www.itsushikawase.com/horses.html. Similarly, Messing (1958).
323
Harris (2015).
324
Blier (1995), 48-49.
325
Blier (1995), 186.
326
Blier (1995), 194.
327
Blier (1995), 186-194; Bolshakov (2001); Allen (2001); Žabkar (1968).
328
De Surgy (1994), 184.
329
Hart (2005), 145.
330
Blier (1995), 222, 254 & 268.
331
Hart (2005), 138-139; Wilkinson (2003), 181-182.
332
Rush (2013), 116; Hart (2005), 139; Wilkinson (2003), 181-182.
333
Westcott (1961); Agai (2014).
334
Wilkinson (1999), 258. The placenta may have been associated with the royal ka; Wilkinson (1999), 170.
335
Baines (1995), 99; for differences, see Baines (1995), 134-135.
336
Volavkova (1972).
337
Riley (1994), 58. For a photograph, see Wikimedia Commons – Tiki 1905, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiki1905.jpg
338
The Tahiti Traveller, online at http://www.thetahititraveler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/tiki-00.jpg ;
CataWiki – Wooden Tiki figure - Marquesas Islands, online at
https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels/19617833-wooden-tiki-figure-marquesas-islands.
339
Riley (1994), 57.
340
Michael Gunn (Senior Curator, Pacific Art, National Gallery of Australia) writes: “There is good evidence to
indicate that the tiki concept came to Polynesia from South America, either directly to the Marquesas Islands
by Polynesian navigators, who also made the return journey, or by Inca who sailed to Rapa Nui Easter Island
by raft;” Gunn (2014).
341
Traditional and tribal artefacts from the two regions are of course commonly offered for sale alongside one
another, e.g. Sotheby’s auction house has a single Department of African and Oceanic Art (Sotheby’s –
African & Oceanic Art, online at https://www.sothebys.com/en/departments/african-oceanic-art).
342
Gunn (2014).
343
Wikimedia Commons – Tiki Marquesas Louvre MH 87-50-1, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiki_Marquesas_Louvre_MH_87-50-1.jpg.
344
Wikimedia Commons – Isole Marchesi, Tiki, Figura di Antenato, 1800-20, online at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isole_marchesi,_tiki,_figura_di_antenato,_1800-20_ca.jpg.
345
Rush (2013), 52-56. Albert De Surgy classifies Ewe yèvhe-vodu or yèvhe-tro as vodu “not recruiting their
followers according to their family affiliation, lineage, clan or even ethnicity, but according to their
temperaments, their aptitudes, or their personalities;” de Surgy (1994), 19-20.
346
Rush (2013), 52-56.
347
Image files from Crome Yellow, online at (a) http://cromeyellow.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/AP-
24.jpg and (b) http://cromeyellow.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/AP-16.jpg.
348
Kułakowska-Lis (2005), 36.
349
Kułakowska-Lis (2005), 54.
350
Henderson (2014), 62.
351
See Introduction.
352
Rush (20130, 3.
353
Rush (2013), 42-43.
354
Blier (1995), 59 & 100.
47
355
Blier (2011), 195
356
Blier (1995), 20.
357
De Surgy (1994), 58.
358
MacGaffey (1993), 87.
359
Caldwell (2018), 290.
360
Caldwell (2018), 285, quoting MacGaffey 2000, 113, citing Van de Velde (1886), 392.
361
Caldwell (2018), 285.

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