ART on view FIG. 31 (below): Seated female supporting fi gure with hand raised to mouth. Kongo peoples; Yombe group, Cabinda, Angola. 19th–early 20th century (inventoried 1916). Wood (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl.), plant fi ber, glass, leopard claw, kaolin, pigment. H: 20 cm. Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal (ANT. ANG.1087) 13004 requires movement across each half of this continuum. The realm of the living is characterized as black, while, in contrast, that of the ancestors is blanched of color. The white kaolin, or chalk, drawn from riverbeds is emblematic of contact with the ancestors and purity. Red denotes a transitional state of being or transformation. In Kongo society an nganga (pl. banganga) is a ritual specialist enlisted to defend his clients or patients against mystical predations. In his practice he activates a specifi c spiritual force to identify and punish those responsible for affl ictions, which might range from misfortune to sickness or even death. That force is invoked through an nkisi (pl.
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