This figure embodies the profound connection between art and divination in Chokwe culture. Most of these small wooden carved objects were contained in a basket, called ngombo ya cisuka, used by the fortune-teller (tahi) of the Chokwe. This method of divination (ngombo) used a basket filled with a variety of symbolic objects which is shaken by the dignitary in charge (kusuka), is widespread among the Chokwe and was also adopted by some of their neighbours. Divination is practiced professionally only by a person designated and inspired by the spirit of ngombo. It takes place during a solemn public ritual. Normally a suppliant does not ask for prophecies about the future, but rather the causes of misfortune, sterility, illness, a death or even a scourge or epidemic afflicting a whole people. The symbolic contents of the basket represent a diversity of items; they include carved wooden images of people, animals and objects, as well as vegetable and mineral subjects. Following a consultation, speedy atonement for the wrong done to a person, of offence done to a spirit, can be imposed. When the influence of witchcraft is detected the ‘eater of souls’ who once would have been put to death, is nowadays permanently banned from the community.
DIVINATION FIGURE
Anonymous Chokwe artist
Angola
Early 20th century
Wood
Height: 11 cm
Provenance:
Colin Sayers Collection, London, UK
David Malik, London, UK, 2024
Duende Art Projects, Antwerp, Belgium, 2024
Chokwe diviner consulting his oracle basket. Photo by Emile Muller, 1923-1938. Published in: Loos (Pierre) & Buch (Pierre), “A Passage to Congo. Photographs by Doctor Emile Muller, 1923-1938”, Brussel, 2007, p. 69.
These figurines are usually made by the soothsayer or his assistants and are in no way considered works of art by the people using them. The contents are first consecrated by the professional soothsayer, than the configuration of objects obtained at the edge of the basket, at the ‘eye’ where the white clay (auspicious) meets the red clay (inauspicious), indicates the reply of the ngondo spirit that has been called upon. It is a sensitive and diplomatic way of resolving private problems or conflict within the community. This figurine katwambimbi, the ‘weeping woman’, shown standing with her hands raised to her head, was said to foretell an imminent death.
Left: Divination basket. Collection National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA (86-12-17.1) | Right: Divination basket. Private Collection. Published in: “Ngombo. Diviners Arts of Central Africa/Wahrsagen und Kunst in Zentralafrika”, by Jordán (Manuel), Munich: Fred Jahn, 2002:24, #6.
