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Nkanu and Mbeko art and ritual

African Arts, Autumn, 2004 by Annemieke Van Damme-Linseele

In 1990, I first traveled to Lower Congo (zone of Kimvula) to participate in the daily life of the Nkanu and their neighbors. It was my goal to study the use of "art" objects within their ritual framework. (1) Since there is little in the literature on this topic, it was necessary to investigate through fieldwork. (2) When first I arrived, I felt great uncertainty about what I would find: How far had the culture been modified by Western influences? I was encouraged by the inaccessibility of the area, and indeed my first contacts with Nkanu informants confirmed that they were still performing ancestral rites. However, it also became clear that some of these rites had already been abandoned, while others were seldom practiced, and there were only a few specialists left who could give me information about them. Furthermore, although the Nkanu and their neighbors are very hospitable, it took me some time to win the confidence of their ritual experts. I had to convince them that I was not planning to institute a similar practice to theirs in Belgium.

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As a female researcher I had expected to meet with resistance or even hostility when I tried to study exclusively male matters, such as the initiation into manhood known as nkanda. Sometimes this was the case. But helped by my interpreter, Emile Mbandu Konda--who enjoyed a respected status because of his age and education--I obtained information about this ritual and the woodcarvings used in it. Those who were willing to reveal such information always took care to protect themselves with ritual gestures against the misfortune (i.e., infertility) this revelation could cause. Fortunately, they also believed that, although certain kinds of information could not be revealed to uninitiated persons within their own group, it was not harmful to Westerners.

Nkanu and Mbeko Spirits

Nkanu and Mbeko ritual and ritual objects are impossible to understand without an understanding of their spirit world. At the top of their pantheon stands Nzambi, the remote god or Supreme Spirit. The Nkanu and Mbeko categorize spirit types as the bakulu, the bankita, the bisimbi, and the matebo. The bakulu are deceased clan members awaiting reincarnation, who experience a liminal existence in a realm known as the Mpemba world, (3) whence they may make occasional appearances in a variety of forms in the land of the living. The other three categories are types of natural forces. The bankita and the bisimbi are peaceful forces living in or near rivers, in the savanna, or on places of landslide, whereas the malicious matebo dwell in the woods. In addition to these forces of nature are spirits of the original ancestors, Mbaka (a dwarfish people) and Nsamba (a white-skinned people). Still other impersonal forces can be grouped under the name of minkisi (sg. nkisi). The Nkanu and Mbeko appear to make a distinction between the minkisi they borrowed from their neighbors the Yaka (such as nkanda, mbwolo, ngombo, nkosi) and those they inherited from their Kongo ancestors (such as mpungu, nkita, niangi).

The Nkanu and Mbeko do not see sickness or death as having natural causes, but rather seek their sources in witchcraft (kindoki) or in the presence of an nkisi that took possession of the patient. A person can place his belongings under the protection of an nkisi. When another individual touches or takes away such an object unlawfully, the nkisi will attack the thief or a member of his family. (4) Consulting a diviner, or nganga ngombo, will disclose the identity of the nkisi responsible for the disease. This specialist can make the nkisi "talk" so that it will reveal the reason for its presence.

In Nkanu and Mbeko society there are specialists who are capable of "capturing" the force of an nkisi, dominating it, and introducing it into an object: a sculpture, a utilitarian object, or an amalgam of elements. This container then is identified with the nkisi itself (Fig. 1). Some say that it was Nzambi--others that it was Mahungu or Ngu, a sort of androgynous primary being--who gave humans the use of minkisi to provide for protection or the fulfillment of wishes.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

One such important nkisi, which inspires the carving of "art" objects, is the nkisi nkanda. The word nkanda has various meanings. First of all, it can be translated as the force that is responsible for health problems such as infertility and sterility. The Nkanu and Mbeko consider these to be the worst problems an individual can encounter; barren individuals are not seen as able-bodied members of the community. Nkanda also stands for a collective initiation ritual, which the Nkanu and Mbeko claim to have borrowed from the Yaka. (5) An nkanda session is seen as a preventive treatment to assure the procreativity of men and thus the continuity of the society. It is an exclusively male matter and starts with the circumcision of the neophytes, young males between six and eighteen years of age (Fig. 2). After the operation, the neophytes are gathered within an enclosure in the forest. This seclusion area--wherein they must stay for several months, in former times sometimes for one to three years--is also known as " nkanda" or "kimpasi ki nkanda." (6) During the period of isolation they are instructed in techniques of agriculture, fishing, hunting, weaving, and so on. Nkanda songs and dances are taught to them as well as an esoteric vocabulary, dictated by the nkisi nkanda itself. Elder initiated men also instruct them in moral precepts and beliefs.

Nkanu and Mbeko art and ritual

African Arts, Autumn, 2004 by Annemieke Van Damme-Linseele

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