Nkishi / Bishimba (Songye power figure + charge)

A Songye nkishi (plural mankishi) is a power figure that houses a ritually assembled charge of substances — bishimba in the Songye language, sometimes called bilongo in dealer and auction literature borrowing the Kongo term. The charge is prepared by a specialist nganga and is the constitutive source of the figure's power; the nganga's identity is to a Songye figure roughly what an artist attribution is to a Western painting.

Songye nkishi are distinguished from the homophonous Kongo nkisi / nkisi nkondi by four diagnostics: the cranial horn into which the primary bishimba charge is sealed; the bena-bukishi ritual society framework that has no Kongo equivalent; the additive accumulation of metal bands, tacks, cowries and raffia rather than wound-inflicting blade insertion; and the geometric mask-derived facial register. Community mankishi (village-scale, large, elaborate) and personal mankishi (household-scale, smaller, simpler) form two functional classes (Hersak 1986, 2010; Neyt 2009).