Kongo Power Figure (Nkisi)

This Kongo power figure (nkisi nkondi) bristles with iron nails and blades driven into its wooden body, each marking an oath, agreement, or appeal to spiritual forces. Created around 1880 in the Kongo Kingdom (modern Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola), the figure housed powerful spiritual substances in its abdominal cavity, activated by a ritual specialist called a nganga.

Nails were driven in to awaken the spirit and bind agreements, with each blade recording a specific transaction. The accumulation of metal created an increasingly powerful object over time. European missionaries and colonial administrators collected (and sometimes destroyed) these figures, viewing them as threatening "fetishes" rather than complex spiritual technologies.

This imposing figure is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.