Accession Number
2005/1.232

Title
Gourd

Artist(s)
Songye

Artist Nationality
Songye

Object Creation Date
circa 1930

Medium & Support
gourd with vegetable, animal, and mineral materials, cigarette butts, white kaolin, earth, wood, and natural fibers

Dimensions
7 1/16 in x 3 15/16 in x 3 15/16 in (18 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Candis and Helmut Stern

Subject matter
Attributed to the Songye who today live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this type of vessel created from a gourd and featuring an anthropomorphic plug is commonly seen throughout central Africa. For the Songye, the nganga, a diviner and healer, serves as a clairvoyant spirit mediator capable of transversing the temporal and celestial realms. Able to detect and communicate with unseen forces, the nganga is seen to be gifted with secret insight into the invisible causes of human suffering. Consequently, he is charged with looking after community members by offering them diagnoses and treatments for both individual and societal crises and afflictions, such as infertility and plague. The nganga would use gourds, like this one, to hold medicinal substances, or bishimba, that he would specially craft and prescribe for ailing clients. The male head depicted on the vessel’s plug likely represents the spirit of a deceased diviner or an ancestor, whom the nganga appeals to for guidance and inspiration.  

Reference:
​Maurer, Evan M. and Niangi Batulukisi.  Spirits Embodied:  Art of the Congo, Selections from the Helmut F. Stern Collection.  Minneapolis:  The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1999.

Physical Description
This vessel made from a hollowed gourd is covered by animal skin and plugged by a finely carved, wooden head. The gourd visually creates a bulbous body for the figure. Further enhancing the anthropomorphic effect are small wooden rods, two of which appear below either side of the head resembling arms and held in place by twisted fiber. The head itself features prominent, rounded eyebrows, narrowly opened eyes, a perfectly rounded mouth, and a rectangular chin.

Primary Object Classification
Ritual Object

Primary Object Type
figure

Collection Area
African

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
calabashes
divination
divination objects
diviners
skin (animal component)
spirits (beings)
vessels (containers)