The Undressing of Two Sacred Healing Bundles: Curative Arts of the Black Atlantic in Haiti and Ancient Kongo

Abstract

This study explores the role of material religion and healing practices of Kongo traditions in Central Africa and the Caribbean. Using Max G. Beauvoir's notion that Illness . . . results from a breach . . . that engenders conditions of disequilibrium, disharmony, chaos, and disorder, I examine how AfroAtlantic works conjure subversive histories and manage spiritual and social afflictions. Instruments of healing in the physical and metaphysical realms, Haitian paket kongo and Congolese minkisi reveal the intersection of aesthetic work and curative, serving as healing bundles in the Black Atlantic (what Dianne Diakite identifies as ritual technologies). Consequently, these sacred art forms perform work to mediate ruptures in the cosmos caused by human chaos. My work examines paket kongo and minkisi as modes of spiritual communion; as religious archive and curative art; and as active agents of community, ultimately helping to establish new narratives of religious history in Kongo's many Diasporas.

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