![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/bright-continent\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/03\/Edo-med.jpg\")
<\/a> Fig. 332. Edo medicine from Benin City, Nigeria, meant to transport the wearer to a safe place in case of a car accident. 20th century.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_949\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]<\/a> Fig. 332. Edo medicine from Benin City, Nigeria, meant to transport the wearer to a safe place in case of a car accident. 20th century.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_949\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/bright-continent\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2018\/03\/yor-20-DSC_1097-CSU.jpg\")
<\/a> Fig. 333. The triangular object at the upper chest of this twin figure depicts an aggrandized leather amulet. Yoruba male artist, Nigeria, 20th century. Cleveland State University African Art Collection.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\"Medicine\" means multiple things in Africa. There are Western medicines, administered through injections and pills, meant to cure diseases and manage chronic conditions. There are African medicines that do the same thing--decoctions from roots and leaves meant to treat yellow fever, poultices from leaves that draw out materials from wounds, and other treatments that involve efficacious herbs and other substances. That, however, is only one type of medicine. Medicine is the English term also used for substances, made to recipes, that use supernatural powers to effect change--not necessarily changes that involve health. There are innumerable types of medicine, each created to a specific formula and activated through incantations, usually by a ritual specialist: medicines for love, exam success, disposing of an enemy, making someone impervious to bullets, becoming invisible to your lover's spouse, becoming pregnant, preventing a specific disease, becoming a witch, fighting witchcraft, punishing errant wives, and countless others. While there are specifically Christian and Muslim medicines (covered later in this book), traditional medicines are usually made from natural substances and include botanical matter, crystals, metal, particular animal skins, claws, teeth, quills, horns--aggressive and protective parts--and objects whose names are homonyms for a desired result.\r\n\r\nMedicines can be used in a variety of ways. One can bathe in an herbal preparation, for example, then go to sleep without rinsing or drying. One can drink a preparation, or wear a garment or ring that has been literally cooked in a boiling decoction. The skin can be cut and a powder rubbed in, or, in the case of one Edo medicine from Nigeria, it can be rubbed with leopard fur to make those encountered respond with respect and fear. It can be ground finely and blown at a rival, heated to produce invisible barriers, or placed over a door to \"tie up\" prospective thieves. Most commonly, it can be encased in a leather packet as an amulet and worn, either under the clothing, around the neck, or attached to clothing (Fig. 332) or headgear.\u00a0Medicines can become polluted by certain practices or encounters, but can usually be \"woken up\" by certain prayers and other preparations. While none of these medicines necessarily constitutes an art form, art objects can encase medicines or depict them (Fig. 333), as well as represent the medicine owned by an individual or group, such as the Poro or Sande societies' description of their masquerades as the physical manifestation of their hale<\/em>, or medicine.\r\n<\/a> Fig. 334. This mask was made and worn by a member of the Komo Society, a men's group that is led by blacksmiths. Male Bamana artist, Mali, late 19th\/early 20th century. 14\" x 8\" x 33.5\". Brooklyn Museum; By exchange; 69.39.3. Creative Commons-BY.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_955\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"182\"]<\/a> Fig. 335. Komo<\/em> costume without mask\u00a0and cylindrical framework. Bamana male artist, S\u00e9gou region, Mali, early 20th century. Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, PV0061012.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1009\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1851\"]<\/a> Fig. 336. these four Komo masks differ in the amount, type, and placement of their components, but are similarly ambiguously animal-like. The example at lower right appears to be missing the actual horns that were probably once part of its ensemble. Top left: Bamana male artist, Mali. L 42.13\". Afrika Museum Berg en Dal, AM-210-2. Coll. Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Upper right: Bamana male artist, Mali. L 42.13\". Afrika Museum Berg en Dal, AM-485-2. Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Lower right: Bamana male artist, Mali. L 20.47\". Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, 71.1885.121.3. Gift of Dr. Bellamy. Lower left: Bamana male artist, Mali. L 27.56\" Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, 71.1963.81.1.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThis Bamana Komo headpiece (Fig. 334) is vastly different from the smooth, polished, graceful forms of Bamana chi wara<\/em> antelope crests. Its surface is crusty and irregular, its cracks revealing nothing of the wood underneath. Although animal-like, it cannot be identified with any particular creature. While the antelope horns, wild boar tusks, and porcupine quills suggest land associations, the performer's costume is made from hand-woven cloth covered with (depending on the region) vulture, chicken, hornbill and\/or guinea fowl feathers (Fig. 335), the whole spread over a cylindrical reed framework that disguises the body. This inclusion of the realm of the air makes the identity of the \"animal\" represented even more ambiguous, and some headpieces include additional bundles of feathers. Its open maw threatens to devour observers, yet no eyes are visible. Its multiple textures are one of its chief characteristics, yet they do not invite touch. These masks are empowered by the sacrifices that have obscured the headpiece's original wooden structure, and by the medicines that provide its textures. Their forms are fairly consistent (Fig. 336), differing mostly in the presence or absence of ears and teeth, as well as the number and type of attached medicines. The works fit on the upper part of a wearer's head, much like a hat. It remains unclear whether the feathered costume covered the face or not. The face remained visible in the few photos of Komo performances that exist, but most of these were staged; there are reports that both headpiece and costume were periodically raised on a pole during the dance.\r\n\r\nThe process of carving requires ritual sexual abstinence on the part of the artist as an essential preparation for work, as well as communion with a nature spirit they have a personal relationship with. The initial wooden carving has somewhat stubby horns, as these are only meant to act as supports for the attachment of real horns. Repeated sacrifices add nyama<\/em>, the power in all living (and some inanimate) things, that empowers the mask. The blacksmiths must obtain the horns, tusks, quills, and other medicinal defensive\/aggressive animal parts to add to the wooden core; these animals' deaths release\u00a0nyama<\/em>, a powerful, unpredictable force that blacksmiths can control and direct. Medical imaging of certain Komo headpieces has revealed that the horns can even have additional medicines inserted before attachment--both visible and hidden dangerous forces are in operation. Porcupine quills are associated both with protecting wisdom and with piercing weapons such as arrows. Birds, the source of feathers, considered communicative partners in divination and be capable intermediaries between prepared individuals and spiritual knowledge. The extended maw may depict an exaggerated hyena's jaws, dually alluding to hyenas' perceived ability to consume sorcerors and the senior Komo members' ability to transform into hyenas to this end.\r\n\r\nThe blacksmiths who make and use these headpieces play important roles in Bamana society, although non-blacksmiths sometimes prefer to keep a social distance from them. Like other Mande peoples, the Bamana are a caste society, with farmers forming the landed aristocracy and other occupational groups (nyamakalaw<\/em>) having distinctive social positions. Blacksmiths, whose wives are potters, are not only metal workers, but also wood sculptors. Besides these artistic roles they are medical experts, diviners, circumcisors, and ritual specialists who produce and administer medicines, and for that reason, they are considered both powerful and potentially threatening. Having consumed and bathed in medicine most of their lives, they literally embody medicine.\r\n\r\nSince the mid-20th century, Islam has had a profound effect on many of the various Bamana men's societies and their associated arts (see chi wara<\/em> in Chapter 3.1). Nonetheless, the blacksmith-led men's society known as Komo is still active today. Its purpose is to protect members and society as a whole, and one of its chief goals is to detect and destroy malevolent sorcerors, including rival Komo who might test a performer's own supernatural abilities during the dance.\u00a0The Bamana are not the only makers and users of Komo--the Tagwa Senufo of western Burkina Faso obtained the right to Komo, still performing songs in the Bamana language, so the source of any given headpiece is ambiguous without collection data.\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o9tJckxzNP8&t=329s[\/embed]\r\n\r\nThe Komo members who wear masks do so only in the presence of men who have paid for the simplest Komo initiation level, the one that allows viewing of a performance. The masquerade is anathema to all but a few special women; other women must not view it, although they may hear the sounds and songs of the performance (see video above). Divination takes place when the masquerader is dancing; he answers members' questions\u00a0through songs in an instrument-distorted voice, which are then interpreted by an associate<\/span>.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_969\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]<\/a> Fig. 337. Boli<\/em> Altar. Bamana male artist, Mali, 20th century. H 26\". Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.90.7. Gift of the Gerard Junior Foundation. Public domain.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen not in use, the mask is kept in a dedicated Komo structure, and it will usually be buried there after its owner's death. Some, however, are hidden before that point, the owner's expectation being that a relative or other Komo member may advance to a state that will make them capable of using the mask. Its location will then be revealed in a dream. The Komo structure holds other power objects, including the portable altars known as boli<\/em> (Fig. 337). Like the Komo masks, boli<\/em> have encrusted surfaces, built from layers of sacrificial blood, food, herbs, kola chewings, honey, and\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_974\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"]<\/a> Fig. 338. Hunter's shirt (and detail) prepared and worn by a Bamana male, Mali, 20th century. Cotton cloth, leather, lion's teeth, animal claws, crocodile skin, horns, hyena skin. ex Charles Ratton collection. Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, 71.1969.23.1.<\/a>alcoholic drinks. While their core may be wooden, medical imaging has revealed that some include cloth, nails, bones, and vegetable matter. They serve as portable altars, and high-ranking members can direct their concentrated nyama\u00a0<\/em>towards a situation or an individual. Their vague form--here somewhat bovine, sometimes hippo-like or anthropomorphic--recalls the ambiguous, mysterious identity of the masks. Their very lack of clarity suggests the secrecy in which they, as well as Komo's activities in general, are held.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_976\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"242\"]<\/a> Fig. 339. The amulets on this Bamana hunter's shirt from Mali obscure the patterns of the bogolanfini<\/em> underneath. Although people from all walks of life wear bogolanfini<\/em>, the patterns its female designers use on hunting tunics themselves have protective functions.\u00a0Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, 71.1964.0.32 X.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn their role as ritual specialists, blacksmiths make medicines for themselves and others. Some of the most visible Bamana medicines are in the form of leather covered amulets that are sewn to the tunics of hunters. Male hunting associations can include members of any caste, so farmers and blacksmiths can each be hunters. They still rid the region of threatening animals, but they are prepared before facing the natural and spiritual danger to be found in the bush, a place of nyama<\/em>; in the past hunters were also warriors, since they were trained to use guns and other weapons, move stealthily,\u00a0be observant, and be medicinally prepared. Their distinctive amulet-laden garments were worn primarily at gatherings of their society, when hunters' bards would sing the praises and biographies of great hunters, living and dead. The tunics are laden with a variety of visible and invisible medicines, many in leather-wrapped duiker antelope horns. The underlying garment can be plain cotton that began as white, but was washed in a mordant; the color is associated with blood (Fig. 338). The rawhide strands that hang on the surface are also medicine. They have been soaked in the saliva of healers, their words carrying nyama<\/em>.\u00a0Other tunics begin as bogolonfini<\/em>, or mudcloth--cotton that was woven by men, then pattern-dyed by women (Fig. 339).\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_986\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"900\"]<\/a> Fig. 340. These two details of Abdoulaye Konate's large wall hanging, Homage to Mande Hunters <\/em>(1994), shows the care in the construction of each amulet, the whole producing a richly textured surface with subtle color variations. Still image from Brilliant Ideas <\/em><\/a>(2016), ep. 31.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAbdoulaye Konate (born 1953), an academically-trained artist from the Bamana region, used hunters' shirts and their talismans as inspiration for his huge Homage to Mande Hunters<\/em> wall hanging (Fig. 340), an early creation. It magnifies the standard tunic until it takes up a whole wall. Its brown color echoes that of the \"cooked\" in medicine, and its surface picks out abstract forms in cowrie shells, the whole covered with spaced amulets and rawhide strands. Konate, educated first at the\u00a0Institut National des Arts de Bamako, and later at Havana's Instituto Superior de Arte, works predominantly in cloth, his creations sometimes covering a whole floor. Many of his works from the 1990s and 2000s included amulets (gris-gris<\/em> in his French titles), as this video<\/strong><\/a> of one of his exhibitions shows.<\/span>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n<\/a> Fig. 342. Nkisi<\/em> created by a Kongo male artist. His upraised arm still holds a spear; some held knives. These are missing on many examples that show a raised clenched fist in the same pose. Democratic Republic of Congo, 20th century. Wood, metal, feathers, mirror, cotton, horns, resin, shells, seeds. H 24\". Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, 73.1968.7.2.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1003\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\"]<\/a> Fig. 341. This Kongo medicinal bundle, collected before 1892, includes ingredients meant to counter witchcraft; these include bamboo \"night guns\" (nduda<\/em>). Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, 71.1892.62.27.1.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBelief in the powers of the dead, as well as in the powers of the living to exercise some control over them, have led to the production of many impactful Kongo sculptures. Their appearance demonstrates collaboration between sculptors, ritual specialists (here called nganga<\/em>), and clients.\u00a0Many Kongo medicines (nkisi<\/em>) are non-figurative, composed of ingredients connected together, or hidden within cloth bundles, bottles, or pots (Fig. 341). Figurative nkisi often incorporate these same types of ingredients or are hung with them; they address similar goals.\r\n\r\nThese power figures (Fig. 342) or nkisi<\/em>\u00a0most commonly take the form of male or female figures, as well as single or Janus-headed dogs; occasional simians also exist. When the sculptor created a figurative\u00a0nkisi<\/em>, he carved a cavity in its torso, with additional cavities sometimes placed on the head, elbow or back, and medicine packets or attachments connected to it on the surface level.\u00a0The nganga<\/em>, after determining the work's specific purpose, would gather the appropriate ingredients to lure the spirit of a dead person to take up residence in the sculpture and carry out the appropriate tasks.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_996\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"550\"]<\/a> Fig. 343. The Kongo cosmogram, a circular or diamond-shaped device that indicates the divisions of this world and the world of the dead, separated by water, but interconnected by the interactions of the dead and the living. It also marks the cyclical nature of life, moving through birth, life, death, afterlife,\u00a0and reincarnation.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThese ingredients varied according to function, but one consistent inclusion was earth from a powerful person's grave or another gathering place of spirits of the dead, such as a stream bottom. These substances lured the spirit and made it feel at home. Such spirits were not ancestors with family connections to the makers or users of the nkisi<\/em>, but those who were effective in life and could use their abilities to new ends.\r\n\r\nOther ingredients included objects whose names were puns associated with characteristics that reinforced the nkisi<\/em>'s capability and metaphors for desired qualities or actions. Once the substances\u00a0were inserted, they were sealed from view with resin and, usually, a mirror. The mirror was synonymous with water, for the dead were housed in a world under the water. The nganga<\/em> could use the mirror as a divination device, peering into the spiritual world to discover the causes and cures for specific situations.\r\n\r\nKongo philosophy posits a spiraling trajectory of life that is graphically represented as a cosmogram (Fig. 343). In it, this world and the spiritual world are divided by a horizontal line that represents a permeable barrier of water, while a\u00a0vertical line marks the interconnectivity of the living and the dead through individuals such as the nganga<\/em> and beings such as those inhabiting nkisi<\/em>. The cosmogram appears on burial mats, marked the ground for oathtaking, White, the color particularly associated with the dead, and red, the color of violence, transition, and the power of the prime of life, often mark nkisi<\/em> faces or the edges of their mirrors.\r\n\r\nLike most Kongo figurative art, nkisi<\/em> are fairly naturalistic (some examples extremely so), although their head-to-body proportions are unnatural, often set at 1:3 or 1:4. Although they can look somewhat ominous, particularly when their medicinal attachments remain, They\u00a0assumed different poses, accoutrements, and accessories because their purposes differed. While some were healers, devoted to curing specific maladies, others hunted down thieves and miscreants or inflicted disease on enemies.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1667\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"237\"]<\/a> Fig. 344. This nkisi<\/em> in female form seems to have been created to encourage conception and healthy delivery. Kongo male artist from Lower Congo River area, Democratic Republic of Congo, late 19th century. H 9.84\". Collectie Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, WM-4075. Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nNumerous works share traits that provide partial symbolic meanings and clues to their functions. The medicine pack of a female nkisi<\/em> in the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam lacks silvering\u00a0and allows observation of its ingredients (Fig. 344). Chief among them is a miniature figure of a mother with child,\u00a0 painted white with kaolin, as well as white spiraling shells and stones. These elements suggest the nkisi<\/em> was dedicated to conception, for the fetus is compared to a snail in its shell. This work is considered to be associated with \"the below,\" the world of water, coolness, the color white, healing, and afflictions of the lower body.\r\n\r\nAnother nkisi<\/em> in Liverpool's World Museum suffered some damage to a medicine pack on the head that revealed its contents; the figure's torso cavity was also x-rayed. Ingredients attached to the head included magnetite crystals, a small snake, charcoal, and a bird of prey's egg; the torso pack also seemed to include crystals. Information supplied by the collector suggests this nkisi<\/em>'s resident spirit was associated with \"the above\" and violence. Some of its medicinal ingredients alluding to aggressive animals who attack with great swiftness. Named\u00a0\u00a0\"Chc\u00f4ca\"--those nkisi<\/em> with known abilities were known by personal names--its attacks were said to cause swelling, sores, and rheumatism.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1000\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"750\"]<\/a> Fig. 345. Both the royal ivory scepter at left and the power object at right show the figures chewing munkwiza<\/em>. Left<\/strong>: Male Kongo-Yombe artist, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 20th century. H 11.5\". Los Angeles County Museum of Art, AC1994.203.2. Gift of Lee and Bob Bronson. Public domain. Right<\/strong>: Kongo-Vili male artist, Loango, Republic of Congo, 19th century. Glass, feathers, wood, cloth. H 13\". Ethnologisches Museum | Afrika, III C 531 \u00a9 Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin - Preu\u00dfischer Kulturbesitz. Photo by Claudia Obrocki. Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMany examples include or once included feathered headdresses. These indicate associations with \"the above\", the realm of both raptors and violent lightning strikes, suggesting an nkisi<\/em> inhabitant capable of swooping down on victims and exercising retribution. A number of power objects show the figure chewing on a root. This is an action that appears on numerous depictions of monarchs (Fig. 345), and indicates a form of impartial justice aided by the munkwiza<\/em>\u00a0(Costus lucanusianus<\/em>) root or vine that could detect witches and defy death. It was an insignia of rule, indicating continuous growth and revival, and was included as an ingredient in the ruler's nkisi<\/em> of investiture. When he pointed it at someone, they would swell up and die, so this nkisi<\/em>'s use munkwiza<\/em> is likely linked to his powers to harm and the\u00a0ability to identify witchcraft. Some nkisi<\/em> have bamboo attachments--the gunpowder-stuffed \"night guns\" of Fig. 341 above--that similarly attack witches and sorcerers. Hunting nets are components of still other nkisi<\/em>. On one level, they suggest the binding of unseen forces, but they also indicate a spirit who can track down individuals and visit them with retribution.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1012\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]<\/a> Fig. 346. This nkisi<\/em> nkonde<\/em>, carved by a male Kongo-Vili artist from Loango, Republic of Congo before 1892, still holds the knife that indicates aggression towards transgressors. His head originally held additional medicinal ingredients; these and those in the torso have since been removed. Wood, metal, cloth, glass, vegetable matter, pigment, resin. H 24.8\". Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly, 71.1892.70.6.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1011\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]<\/a> Fig. 347. This nkisi<\/em>, its piercing glare emphasized by the insertion of porcelain, was not yet well-used at the time of its collection, since the back shows little evidence of metal piercing. It would have originally worn a raffia fiber skirt, now missing. It leans forward slightly, as if in anticipation, its arms akimbo posture signifying a call to action. Male Kongo-Yombe artist, Chiloango River region of Republic of Congo or Cabinda, 19th century. Wood, iron, resin, ceramic, plant fiber, textile, pigment. H. 46.5\". Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008.30. Purchase by Lila Acheson Wallace, Drs. Daniel and Marian Malcolm, Laura G. and James J. Ross, Jeffrey B. Soref, The Robert T. Wall Family, Dr. and Mrs. Sidney G. Clyman, and Steven Kossak Gifts, 2008. Public domain.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1007\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]<\/a> Fig. 349. Male Kongo-Yombe artist, the Democratic Republic of Congo, late 19th or early 20th century. Wood, cloth, glass, metal, shells, Holz; Textil; Glas; Metall; mussel shells, snail shells, bone, plant matter. L 26.77\". Ethnologisches Museum | Afrika, III C 18905. \u00a9 Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin - Preu\u00dfischer Kulturbesitz. Photo by Martin Franken. Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE<\/a>.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1008\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"214\"]<\/a> Fig. 348. Image from anonymously-authored Kijkjes in Belgisch Kongo (Antwerp: J. E. Buschmann, 1920), final plate. This publication about the expedition by J. Maes includes this image from the Chiloango River region that had been photographed as early as 1897.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSome of the most visually striking power figures are known as nkisi nkondi<\/em>, or hunting nkisi\u00a0<\/em>(Figs. 346, 347, 348). These can bristle with nails, each indicating a contract with a client seeking to punish someone who has committed a crime, broken an oath, or otherwise offended. The insertion of iron is meant to awaken the in-dwelling spirit to track the offender and inflict pain, disease, or death, unless restitution is made. The varied textures and altered silhouettes of these figures attest to the role of clients' in the figures' appearance: they no longer look as they did when they left the artists' hands or even the\u00a0nganga<\/em>'s hands, but demonstrate the results of many transactions.\r\n\r\nMale nkisi<\/em> were often paired with female nkisi<\/em>, or with dog representations, since the latter are said to live in a village at the border of this world and that of the spirits, their hunting skills particularly suited to tracking the guilty (Fig. 349). A better understanding of any specific nkisi<\/em> requires its case history and knowledge of its medicines; fortunately, some were collected with this information, although the vast majority were not (see hotspot images below for individual biographies). Those whose powers were particularly potent were known by their personal names\r\n\r\nSmall nkisi<\/em> might be owned by individuals, such as warriors who traveled with them for their divinatory abilities. Others were owned by nganga<\/em>, or by communities, those considered particularly efficacious drawing pilgrims from hundreds of miles away who were eager for their cures or punishing abilities. Wary about the power the Kongo invested in nkisi<\/em>, the Portuguese began seizing them in their territories in the last decade of the 19th century, while the Belgian and French officials (as well as missionaries, both European and Kongo) similarly stripped Kongo nkisi<\/em> from their shrines. Although this pattern was not new--both written and visual allusions to the destruction of Kongo \"idols\" occurred in the 16th through 18th centuries, conducted by both Christian Kongo kings and foreign missionaries--the depredations during the colonial period have now reduced medicine to non-figurative forms.\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"2\"]\r\n<\/a><\/a>“Medicine” means multiple things in Africa. There are Western medicines, administered through injections and pills, meant to cure diseases and manage chronic conditions. There are African medicines that do the same thing–decoctions from roots and leaves meant to treat yellow fever, poultices from leaves that draw out materials from wounds, and other treatments that involve efficacious herbs and other substances. That, however, is only one type of medicine. Medicine is the English term also used for substances, made to recipes, that use supernatural powers to effect change–not necessarily changes that involve health. There are innumerable types of medicine, each created to a specific formula and activated through incantations, usually by a ritual specialist: medicines for love, exam success, disposing of an enemy, making someone impervious to bullets, becoming invisible to your lover’s spouse, becoming pregnant, preventing a specific disease, becoming a witch, fighting witchcraft, punishing errant wives, and countless others. While there are specifically Christian and Muslim medicines (covered later in this book), traditional medicines are usually made from natural substances and include botanical matter, crystals, metal, particular animal skins, claws, teeth, quills, horns–aggressive and protective parts–and objects whose names are homonyms for a desired result.<\/p>\n
Medicines can be used in a variety of ways. One can bathe in an herbal preparation, for example, then go to sleep without rinsing or drying. One can drink a preparation, or wear a garment or ring that has been literally cooked in a boiling decoction. The skin can be cut and a powder rubbed in, or, in the case of one Edo medicine from Nigeria, it can be rubbed with leopard fur to make those encountered respond with respect and fear. It can be ground finely and blown at a rival, heated to produce invisible barriers, or placed over a door to “tie up” prospective thieves. Most commonly, it can be encased in a leather packet as an amulet and worn, either under the clothing, around the neck, or attached to clothing (Fig. 332) or headgear.\u00a0Medicines can become polluted by certain practices or encounters, but can usually be “woken up” by certain prayers and other preparations. While none of these medicines necessarily constitutes an art form, art objects can encase medicines or depict them (Fig. 333), as well as represent the medicine owned by an individual or group, such as the Poro or Sande societies’ description of their masquerades as the physical manifestation of their hale<\/em>, or medicine.<\/p>\n This Bamana Komo headpiece (Fig. 334) is vastly different from the smooth, polished, graceful forms of Bamana chi wara<\/em> antelope crests. Its surface is crusty and irregular, its cracks revealing nothing of the wood underneath. Although animal-like, it cannot be identified with any particular creature. While the antelope horns, wild boar tusks, and porcupine quills suggest land associations, the performer’s costume is made from hand-woven cloth covered with (depending on the region) vulture, chicken, hornbill and\/or guinea fowl feathers (Fig. 335), the whole spread over a cylindrical reed framework that disguises the body. This inclusion of the realm of the air makes the identity of the “animal” represented even more ambiguous, and some headpieces include additional bundles of feathers. Its open maw threatens to devour observers, yet no eyes are visible. Its multiple textures are one of its chief characteristics, yet they do not invite touch. These masks are empowered by the sacrifices that have obscured the headpiece’s original wooden structure, and by the medicines that provide its textures. Their forms are fairly consistent (Fig. 336), differing mostly in the presence or absence of ears and teeth, as well as the number and type of attached medicines. The works fit on the upper part of a wearer’s head, much like a hat. It remains unclear whether the feathered costume covered the face or not. The face remained visible in the few photos of Komo performances that exist, but most of these were staged; there are reports that both headpiece and costume were periodically raised on a pole during the dance.<\/p>\n The process of carving requires ritual sexual abstinence on the part of the artist as an essential preparation for work, as well as communion with a nature spirit they have a personal relationship with. The initial wooden carving has somewhat stubby horns, as these are only meant to act as supports for the attachment of real horns. Repeated sacrifices add nyama<\/em>, the power in all living (and some inanimate) things, that empowers the mask. The blacksmiths must obtain the horns, tusks, quills, and other medicinal defensive\/aggressive animal parts to add to the wooden core; these animals’ deaths release\u00a0nyama<\/em>, a powerful, unpredictable force that blacksmiths can control and direct. Medical imaging of certain Komo headpieces has revealed that the horns can even have additional medicines inserted before attachment–both visible and hidden dangerous forces are in operation. Porcupine quills are associated both with protecting wisdom and with piercing weapons such as arrows. Birds, the source of feathers, considered communicative partners in divination and be capable intermediaries between prepared individuals and spiritual knowledge. The extended maw may depict an exaggerated hyena’s jaws, dually alluding to hyenas’ perceived ability to consume sorcerors and the senior Komo members’ ability to transform into hyenas to this end.<\/p>\n The blacksmiths who make and use these headpieces play important roles in Bamana society, although non-blacksmiths sometimes prefer to keep a social distance from them. Like other Mande peoples, the Bamana are a caste society, with farmers forming the landed aristocracy and other occupational groups (nyamakalaw<\/em>) having distinctive social positions. Blacksmiths, whose wives are potters, are not only metal workers, but also wood sculptors. Besides these artistic roles they are medical experts, diviners, circumcisors, and ritual specialists who produce and administer medicines, and for that reason, they are considered both powerful and potentially threatening. Having consumed and bathed in medicine most of their lives, they literally embody medicine.<\/p>\n Since the mid-20th century, Islam has had a profound effect on many of the various Bamana men’s societies and their associated arts (see chi wara<\/em> in Chapter 3.1). Nonetheless, the blacksmith-led men’s society known as Komo is still active today. Its purpose is to protect members and society as a whole, and one of its chief goals is to detect and destroy malevolent sorcerors, including rival Komo who might test a performer’s own supernatural abilities during the dance.\u00a0The Bamana are not the only makers and users of Komo–the Tagwa Senufo of western Burkina Faso obtained the right to Komo, still performing songs in the Bamana language, so the source of any given headpiece is ambiguous without collection data.<\/p>\nBamana Art and Medicine: the Komo mask<\/a><\/h3>\n
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