African fetish art

African Fetish Art

A fetish statue is something with magical power, like an amulet, talisman or even just a good luck charm. In traditional, tribal Africa these beliefs are manifested in some of their most expressive and magical power figures. Each creation typically has its own specific function, like to conjure away evil spirits or attempt to control someone's destiny. They were given the name 'Fetish Figures' mainly because of the magical properties they believed they possessed but also because of the excessive devotion paid towards the statues. 

Most tribes believed that the fetishes acquired power during the ritualistic carving, by adding special substances and the recurring activation of its spirit. Often offerings were made like sacrifices and magic words. Back to the 'special substances', some fetishes had the heads or stomachs hollowed out to hold said substances, some might of had mirrors to 'reflect the evil or to blind any hostile spirits', some are 'Janus-figures' which are believed to better vigilance and protection. Among the materials added to the figures might be; horns, shells, nails, feathers, mirrors, metals, twine, paint, cloth, beads, herbs, basically anything believed to enhance the figures power or magic.