Large Power Figure with Raised Arm and Head Bundle (Nkisi Nkondi)

The right arm is raised high, the hand carved as an open grip, poised to strike at thieves, oath-breakers and those who do harm by hidden means; the lowered left arm at the hip completes the bearing of a judge. The tall, cloth-wrapped bundle bound with cord on the head houses medicines at the crown, the seat of the figure’s vision and authority. White mpemba around the brow, eyes and mouth is the colour of the dead and the spirit world, and the heavy-lidded eyes seem turned inwards towards that realm. The open mouth gives the spirit a voice.

Twisted cords coil around the neck and body, enacting kanga. Two red cloth bundles at the chest refer to tukula, power and passage between worlds, and a secondary carved head rising from the iron mass evokes an attendant spirit drawn into the figure’s service. The dense collar of nails records many invocations, and a further large bundle bound to the back deepens the charge. Large figures of this kind served whole villages and districts.

An imposing work in both scale and density of material. The silhouette rises from the circular base through the planted legs and the bristling iron collar to the tall wrapped bundle, and the raised arm, ending in the ring of the open grip, drives the composition upwards. The face is carved with calm authority — a long nose, heavy lids and an open mouth — lightened by touches of white. The radiating nails frame the two red bundles and the secondary head, where colour, texture and imagery gather in a powerful focal point, and the grey, earthy surface gives the figure an ancient, weathered presence.