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Kozo, the double-headed dog
Kongo, late 19th - early 20th century AD
From the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire)
Kongo carvers produced wooden carvings (minkisi,
singular: nkisi) in human form, which were used in rituals
to solve problems or to gain wealth, and also in the form of
animals, particularly the double-headed dog Kozo.
Among the Kongo wild animals are associated with the dead, who
are buried away from villages, either in the forests or across
rivers. Domesticated animals such as dogs live in villages but are
used to hunt game in the forests. They are, therefore, considered
as mediators between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Kozo's two heads and four eyes make him particularly potent in
this role. Powerful medicines bound with resin or clay, a substance
particularly associated with the dead, are placed on the animal's
back; these empower the figure to act on behalf of the
nganga or ritual specialist. To instruct the
nkisi in a particular task, the nganga would
drive an iron blade into the figure, with an accompanying
invocation.
T. Phillips (ed.), Africa, the art of a continent (London, Royal Academy, 1995)
J. Mack (ed.), Africa: arts and cultures (London, The British Museum Press, 2000)