Art of the Healing Gods: Mystic Pots, Sacred Bundles, & Collective Selfhood in Black Atlantic Religions

Abstract

This project investigates how Africana ritual vessels mediate relationships between humans and spirits in contemporary Caribbean and Central African healing ceremonies. Drawing from the fields of art history, comparative religion, and ethnography of ritual healing, this essay examines two kinds of healing vessels, Congolese banzungu ya bankoko and Haitian Vodou pakèt kongo. I identify unique aesthetic features of mystic clay pots and sacred cloth bundles respectively to understand their religious healing properties as repositories of medicine, embodied vessels, and encased altars. Though their distinct aesthetic forms may render these artifacts nearly unrecognizable cousins, both healing vessels host spirits and sacred objects inside. Their individual components harmonize to create a powerful collective “selfhood,” offering healing for individuals and the community. Ultimately, this study highlights the invaluable bodies of knowledge represented in Black Atlantic sacred art traditions as revealed through the ceremonial creation and use of mystic pots and sacred bundles, the art of the healing gods.

THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC