African Charms
Various traditions of healing or protective charms are made in Africa and the New World by men or women, priests or priestesses, conjuremen or conjurewomen, spirit-diviners or artists, on commission from clients with political, personal, physical, emotional, or religious problems.
Charms are improvised solutions to individual needs. Some are more protective; others are to heal. Charms are accumulated arts, made with magical ingredients, on the inside or the outside. Beads, buttons, coins, claws, feathers, and shells are enclosed, or attached to artifacts and costumes, to imbue them with protective powers.
West Africans make a variety of charms, some from simple roots; others are complicated assemblages. In West Africa, there is a tradition of enclosing writing in charms, because writing is considered protective due to its inherent knowledge.
Small square packets, often of red leather, cloth or metal, enclosing script, are worn around the neck and sewn onto ceremonial, hunting, and war costumes, for protection from numerous and varied dangerous forces. The Tuareg peoples enclose their charms in intricate leather and metal designs.
In central Africa, Kongo peoples use Minkisi, the medicines of God, made in numerous forms, and usually activated by reciting verbs of action, to conjure the powers that ancestors have to make charms work.
The earliest known Minkisi (charms) were made from found roots, and ceramic vessels with liquid medicines. Cloth charms, usually red, and with feathers at the top, were tied. A wooden charm often took a human or animal shape, with a hollow in the center for the magical curing substances. This cavity was sealed with clay or cloth, and then might be marked with glass, a shell, mica, or a mirror, all references to the watery realm of the Kongo ancestors.
Central African diviners often kept charm ingredients (claws, river stones, carved figurines, shells, clay, graveyard earth, etc.) in baskets. The magical materials could be used in divination (to determine solutions to problems), which might result in making a charm, using the same or similar ingredients.
Charms are improvised solutions to individual needs. Some are more protective; others are to heal. Charms are accumulated arts, made with magical ingredients, on the inside or the outside. Beads, buttons, coins, claws, feathers, and shells are enclosed, or attached to artifacts and costumes, to imbue them with protective powers.
West Africans make a variety of charms, some from simple roots; others are complicated assemblages. In West Africa, there is a tradition of enclosing writing in charms, because writing is considered protective due to its inherent knowledge.
Small square packets, often of red leather, cloth or metal, enclosing script, are worn around the neck and sewn onto ceremonial, hunting, and war costumes, for protection from numerous and varied dangerous forces. The Tuareg peoples enclose their charms in intricate leather and metal designs.
In central Africa, Kongo peoples use Minkisi, the medicines of God, made in numerous forms, and usually activated by reciting verbs of action, to conjure the powers that ancestors have to make charms work.
The earliest known Minkisi (charms) were made from found roots, and ceramic vessels with liquid medicines. Cloth charms, usually red, and with feathers at the top, were tied. A wooden charm often took a human or animal shape, with a hollow in the center for the magical curing substances. This cavity was sealed with clay or cloth, and then might be marked with glass, a shell, mica, or a mirror, all references to the watery realm of the Kongo ancestors.
Central African diviners often kept charm ingredients (claws, river stones, carved figurines, shells, clay, graveyard earth, etc.) in baskets. The magical materials could be used in divination (to determine solutions to problems), which might result in making a charm, using the same or similar ingredients.
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