Nkisi (power image) from Congo

Height: ±35 cm.

Nkisi (plural minkisi) are spirits or an object inhabited by a spirit. The term is often used for a variety of objects used in the Congo Basin in Central Africa, especially in the Cabinda area, that are believed to contain spiritual powers or spirits. Close communication with ancestors and belief in the effectiveness of their powers are closely linked to minkisi in the Kongo tradition.

Among the peoples of the Congo Basin, especially the Bakongo and the Songye of Kasai, it is often believed that exceptional human powers arise from some kind of communication with the dead. People known as banganga (singular: nganga) work as healers, sorcerers and intercessors who defend the living against black magic (witchcraft) and provide them with remedies against diseases arising from witchcraft or the demands of bakisi (spirits), emissaries from the land of the dead. Banganga use the powers of bakisi and the dead by making minkisi.