Tag: africa

Senefu Bird Couple

Senefu Bird Couple, Ivory Coast, Africa

According to the Senufo belief, the Hornbull, along with the Tortoise , the crocodile, the chameleon and the sepent – was one of the first living creatures.  The long phallic beak touching its own swollen belly suggesting pregnancy, represents the dual forces of the male and female components, symbolizing the need for both to ensure the continuity of the whole community.  The image of this bird is taken from the native Yellow Casqued Hornbill bird, which the Senufo believe is the master of all arrogant birds and associated with intellectual power, significant of the knowledge the elders hope to impart on the you initiates.

Bakongo Nkondi Nail Fetish

Magical Objects: Africa: Congo Region: Bakongo Nkondi Nail Fetish

The various attempts to influence the fearsome powers of the supernatural through the mediation of statues or fetishes have acquired particular intensity in the regions round the mouth of the River Congo, home of the Kongo, Yombe and Vili tribes, and this is also the case in the east of Zaire, among the Songye.

Magical objects were for many years little known in Europe, as Christian missionaries working in Africa tracked them down and had them burnt. Certain statues which were brought back to Europe by religious men, allegedly for documentation, were kept in secret and could not be studied. They were much feared for they seemed, even to European eyes, to have real power, a belief almost universally accepted in 17th-century Europe. Olfert Dapper was the first to look dispassionately at these “fetish” objects and to dare to describe them.

Recent work has led to a better understanding. They are wooden carvings, either anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, which are covered with a variety of objects such as nails or metal blades. The cavities in their back or stomach contain “medicines” – grains, hairs, teeth or fingernails – which are held together with various binding materials. Pieces of fabric, feathers or lumps of clay are sometimes present. Finally, bits of mirror, shiny metal or shells are used to close the cavities or to mark the eyes.

Very often the faces alone are carved in detail, while the rest of the body – destined to be hidden under these various additional features – is sculpted more summarily. The figure’s genitals may even be missing, either because they have never been carved or because they have been removed by a zealous missionary.