Nkisi Nkondi.
Power figure "nkisi", before 1929, D. R. Congo, Bakongo/Mayombe/Vili
Figura protetora e sarcófago antropomórfico, geralmente designado por ídolo de pregos dos Kongo de Cabinda e do Norte de Angola.
Madeira, ferro, espelho, pigmentos, etc., 50,5 cm.
Recolhido por 1929 (c.)
Cabinda, Maiombe, Norte de Angola ou República Democrática do Congo
Proveniente da coleção Wilhelm Voss, Wuppertal, Germany (acquired in 1929); Dutch Collection (1934); English Collection; Gerd Hanebeck (1939-2017), Wuppertal, Germany (since 1987)
Gerd Hanebeck was a german painter, graphic and object artist, living and working in Wuppertal. His artistic oeuvre is influenced by the cultures of Western Africa and the ritual cults of the Western African tribes. His oeuvre comprises paintings, sculptures, drawings, object cases, material pictures and works in terracotta. He himself has never been in Africa, which is why Hanebeck is jokingly called the “painting Karl May”.
Fotografia de 17 de setembro de 2015.
Leilão Zemanek-Münster, 81th Tribal Art Auction, 31 de outubro de 2015, lote 424, vendido por 20.000 euros, Munique, Alemanha.

Wood,  wood, reddish brown patina, black and red paint, eyes with glass inlay, striking large head rising from a thick neck, aggressively out-thrust jaw with an open mouth as if screaming, the stuck out tongue should provide protection from magical threat, right hand to the hip, the left with upturned palm presented to the viewer, the self confident pose emphasized by overlarge feet firmly resting on the ground, headdress with raised rim spread with mass, presumably once provided with cloth package or feather bunches, two boxes filled with magical material at the belly and at the back, each closed with mirror glass, iron aglets in the breast, slightly dam., minor missing parts (rim of the headdress), fine cracks, rep. (left forearm, rim of the headdress), base;
the “nkisi”-object is basically a container for animal, vegetable, and mineral materials known as “medicines” (“bilongo”) that expressed by their names, forms or provenance the aims that the “nkisi” was expected to achieve and the powers that enabled it to do so. In many “minkisi” (pl.) we might find leaves of the “lusakasaka” plant, that it might “bless” the supplicant. A single seed of “luzibu”, that it might “open” matters that are hidden or closed. “Kalazima” (charcoal) that it might “smite” evildoers, and always, white kaolin clay (“mpemba) to represent the presence of powers from the land of the dead. Most of the ingredients were first reduced to unidentifiable fragments or a powder. Besides its material apparatus, the complete “nkisi” entity included songs to be sung in its presence, invocations addressed to it, and behavioral restrictions observed by its “nganga” and the beneficiaries of the ritual. Lacking these, the figure in itself is powerless.
Comparing literature: Fagaly, William, Ancestors of Congo Square, New Orleans 2011, p. 344 ff.; pub. Engel, R. & Eickhorst, A., Kunst in der Sparkasse: "Annäherung" - Hans Jürgen Hiby - Gerd Hanebeck, Wuppertal 2011, p. 47 f.; exposto: "Annäherung" - Hans-Jürgen Hiby - Gerd Hanebeck, Wuppertal, September - November 2011
Figura em postura real telama lwimbanganga, indicativa da sua capacidade de clarividência. Esta postura nem sempre traduz agressividade, está também ligada à ordem e reequilíbrio social. Embora seja o escultor que executa estes objectos, é o nganga (especialista do ritual) que providencia o "bilongo", ou seja, é ele que através das substâncias mágicas que coloca na figura (nomeadamente no recetáculo do ventre), lhe confere a força sobrenatural. Para ativar um nkisi o ngaanga crava-lhe uma peça em metal de acordo com o pedido que lhe foi dirigido.