Nkinsi Nkondi, a divine Sculpture from central Africa emerged from a trip to Paris/France. During a visit to the Quai Branly Museum, I discovered a nkisi nkondi statue from the Kongo people in central Africa. This divine figure represents the moral and spiritual codes of the people -- it is also a political and religious symbol of power, resistance, fear, and defiance. The minkisi were power figures used to destroy evil spirits, cure illnesses, and resolve disputes. The project revisits pre-and post-colonial times and the current cultural and political status via the performance-study of the minkisi mikondi sacred sculptures.
Carved in wood, minkisi (plural of nkisi) were found in the kingdom of Kongo, which was located in West central Africa, in what is now known as northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the southern part of Gabon. The kingdom was mostly an independent state from the 14th to the 19th century, until it was broken apart by colonial Portugal, France and Belgium. Independence was reinstated in the 1960s, although by that time, years of foreign domination had caused brutal damages throughout the Congolese culture, politics and economics.
This process of excavation raises ongoing questions: “What would have happened if people had held on to their beliefs and their healing practices? What if people didn’t embrace Christianity? The people whose heritage minkisi are a part of don’t even know about their existence.
