From the Old to the New World: The Transformation of Kongo Minkisi in African American Art

Minkisi (sing. nkisi) were sacred objects that housed ancestral spirits and were used for divination, healing and social justice by the Kongo people of Central Africa. When the Kongo were brought as slaves to the New World, they contributed significantly to the development of African American artistic and spiritual culture. In the Caribbean, aspects of minkisi have been retained in the creolized spiritual beliefs of Haitian Vodou, Cuban Palo Monte Mayombe and Brazilian Candomble. In North America, evidence of Kongo influence is apparent in examples of folk art and culture, including quilts, mojo hands, Afro-Carolinian face vessels, memory jugs and burial sites. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, artists appear to have recontextualized elements of minkisi within their work, among these James “Son Ford” Thomas, James Van Der Zee, Betye and Alison Saar, Willie Cole and Renee Stout, creating a link between the Kongo past and the American present.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• McCurnin, Mary

Contributors dc:contributor

• Babatunde Lawal

• minkisi
• nkisi
• Kongo
• Vodou
• hoodoo
• Palo Monte
• Renee Stout
• Betye Saar
• Alison Saar
• Willie Cole
• James Van Der Zee
• Central Africa
• fetish
• James "Son Ford" Thomas
• Arts and Humanities

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/78

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1077