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Postcard of the day: a Yombe diviner

Postcard Yombe diviner Nail fetish nkisi nkondi

Above a fantastic old postcard, previously unknown to me, showing a collector of African art specialized in Kongo nkisi nkondi smoking a pipe in his living room. 🙂 I count four big statues, two smaller in the corner and a dog on the ground in front of them. On the right, there also appears to be hanging a zoomporphic figure on the wall. I have never see so many figures together owned by a single diviner. This picture somehow reminded me of Dennett’s drawing of a Vili diviner at work, as illustrated in his Seven years among the Fjort and shown below.

Maloango Pongo falls sick seven years among the fjort Dennett nkisi nkondi