This relatively common representation of a Songye power figure would have been used by a tribal spiritual leader or healer to accomplish any of a range of purposes for which his services are regularly in demand by members of the tribe or by the community. It is through the use of these figures that those spiritual people are able to express their spirituality. It’s effectiveness has great versatility: to heal the sick, to forecast the future, to protect the individual or the community against specific or more general negative forces. It is the figure itself that allows people to concentrate on the power being manipulated by the person using it, be he a shaman, a healer, a diviner, etc. The phenomenon is common across many tribes in Africa but it is only the Songye of the Congo that use this particular figure.

This figure measures: 1.75" x 2" x 6"