Conclusion

What does it say about people when they transfer their hopes onto a thing, in the hope that spirits contained in that thing will quench their desire? What does it say about a society when it relies on a thing to mediate between spirits and mortals, between victim and perpetrator, between justice and injustice? And, finally, what is a thing filled with such strong agency, and what is that thing when the people who believe in it disappear? Does it become an interesting piece of African art or a strange-looking doll with which a child can play?

This project has created more questions than answers, but one thing it has attuned me to is the sheer power of things. Although it is unlikely that spirits actually inhabit a Nkisi, everyone in pre-colonised BaKongo society believed this. Thus, when someone in a village had suffered theft and went to visit the nganga so find the culprit, the whole village would know that anyone who had chest pains in the days to come was guilty. The sheer psychological pressure on the culprit must have been huge, as everyone believed in the strength of these spirits. Thus, I think one could assume that in many cases the real perpetrator was indeed caught, because he or she willingly turned himself or herself in to avoid the punishment of the spirits. It is a fascinating circular structure: humans create thing, humans invoke spirits to fill thing, thing becomes powerful, thing affects targeted human, human changes, human pays for thing to stop, and social justice is, hopefully, maintained.

Why do we need objects to connect us to spirits? How does a small, material thing help us contact the Gods, how does one feel spiritual, how does one feel God in a doll? Again, I believe the anthromorphism of these objects to be crucial. Humans already have their own spirit, and cannot fully contain external spirits. However, in both cases, a nganga and a Voodoo Queen, must contact the spirits and channel them into the thing. The use of a thing permits every person to handle, use and change it. Because it is antromorphic, humans may feel a much stronger connection to the thing than if it were a white rectangle or a star-shaped wooden sculpture. Again, many other types of objects are worshipped and attributed agency, but none seem to draw out psychological desires as strongly as the Nkisi or the Voodoo doll.

Because of this project, I have definitely altered my often dichotomous way of thinking about thing-human relationships. In many ways, this project has turned into an examination of thing- human- spirits relationship. In both cases, the thing is the concrete mediator between spirits and humans-- which are usually unable to contact each other. What is fascinating is that a spiritual belief as complex as the one practiced in Voodoo religion or by the Bakongo people also requires raw human creations to function. Perhaps, one can argue, it is essential to have something tangible and anthropomorphic present to be able to truly feel connected to the spirits.

Without searching for an unnuanced answer, one must wonder: is it personally and societally beneficial to attribute such agency to a thing? Although it may be psychologically helpful for a slave to unleash years of pent-up humiliation and anger onto a Voodoo doll resembling his or her master, are proxies ultimately productive? For the Voodoo doll, it seems that certain people may rely on it to provide them what they have not achieved- love, fortune or luck. Furthermore, in a societal context, is there not huge danger in relying on a sort of statue to bring justice to a community? While there were no doubt many other forms of justice and their actions were far from irrational, there is a large risk in depending on the supposed will of a spirit to catch a thief, or even to help in childbirth. One could perhaps hypothesize that because this particular society lacked modern medicine, spirits were the strongest sense of comfort and security one could hope for, and the psychological ramifications of these cannot be ignored.

Lastly, I think a way to sum up the multiple paradoxes in these two objects is that they are created by humans, yet they must be invoked by their creators to produce a desired change, and they retain their own will.

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