bag;
soul-catcher;
charm
- Museum number
- Af1910,1026.13
- Description
-
Bag with charms, made of vegetable fibre.
- Production date
- 1880s
- Dimensions
-
Height: 34 centimetres (a)
-
Height: 21 centimetres (b)
-
Width: 13 centimetres (a)
-
Width: 6.50 centimetres (b)
-
Depth: 6 centimetres (a)
-
Depth: 5 centimetres (b)
- Curator's comments
- Recorded in the Register as "Soul-traps".
See J H Weeks, ‘Among the primitive Bakongo’, 1914, p.117:
Some anxious mothers, after the birth of a child, send for a witch-doctor (ngang' a munkanda = traps), who brings with him a number of small, conical basket traps — hence the name of his order. These he carefully places all around the doors of the house to catch any evil spirits (ndoki) that may try to get into the house, and enter the child to kill it. The doctor looks at the traps every morning, and if he finds a cockroach or spider in any one of them, it is looked upon as a proof that he has caught an evil spirit in the very act of entering the house to harm the child. Evil spirits can disguise themselves in any convenient form, and the doctor before setting the traps puts in something to attract the insects.
See Rev. W Holman Bentley, ‘Pioneering on the Congo’, London (The Religious Tract Society), 1900, vol.I pp.258-9 (describing obects in his own collection):
Another fetish is enclosed in a small net: inside are several layers of blue cloth (cotton). At last we reach a lot of cam-wood powder containing beads, two scraps of skin, a bird’s beak, a bean and a gourd pip. A very poor lot, yet it has inspired hundreds with awe and wonder, who would not have dared to touch it under any circumstances through fear of instant death.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1910
- Acquisition notes
- Af1910,1026.1 to 17 were purchased from the Rev. John H Weeks, and come from northern Angola, the region around San Salvador, where he worked as a Baptist missionary and made the collection between 1881 and 1890 (see his biography). His book 'Among the primitive Bakongo' of 1914 describes the people and their way of life.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1910,1026.13