The Capuchin Account of Kongo Nganga Practices

Record summary

Seventeenth-century Capuchin reports from Kongo describe nganga specialists, ritual objects, diagnosis, healing, dreams, spirit communication, and accusations of sorcery. These materials are identifiable through missionary correspondence and Cavazzi’s published account, and they provide early evidence for how Central African specialists interpreted illness and unusual experience. They matter comparatively because the same practices were rendered as medicine, divination, or diabolic deception depending on the observer. The reports are not standardized observations, and Kongo terms and institutions require contextual reconstruction.