Kongo Nkondi or Power Figure

Each nail is a promise. Or a complaint. Or a warning.

A nkondi was activated by a ritual specialist, the nganga, and called upon to seal oaths, settle disputes and hunt down wrongdoers. Each nail or blade driven into the wood recorded an appeal or agreement. This Kongo figure from the Republic of Congo, made in the early 20th century, stands five feet tall. It bristles from shoulders to feet with iron nails, wedges, blades and rings. A glass-covered medicine box is set into the belly. The face, partly whitened with pigment, looks out calmly above a rope-like collar.

The iron has rusted to a deep even brown. A figure that does not need an introduction. It will manage one anyway.