Notes on Ngoma

Kinshasa-Africas largest city below the Equator. The most characteristic of Western Bantu society coastal Kongo, estward into Bandudu is, Nkita. The focus of the Nkita therapeutic ritual is the lineage is at the core of the society. The Nkita therapeutic ritual is ancient. It also traveled with the enslaved Bantus to Haiti to be incorporated into the loa system of healing and worship. Nkita is associated with bisimbi nature spirits who invest, or bvalidate, lneage authority, which in many regions is embodied in powerful medcinal and religious compositions called minkisi. The Nkita concentrates on the matrilineage and the individual affliction which is believed to originate from lineage problems. Nkita is at one the name of the illness, the spirit behind it, and the therapeutic rite. The signs of Nkita afflictions: psychological distress, dreams, fevers, or threat to the continuity of the lineage in the form of childrens illnesses or deaths, the barreness of women or couples, or lingering sickness of male leaders. These problems are often associated with suspicion of inadequate leadership, or at any rate a loss of contact with the bisimbi or nkita spirits in which lineage authority is vested. The Nkita rite follows the diagnosis of the individual or collective cause of the misfortune. -it starts with a quest for nkita spirits in a river at the outset of the seclusion of the sufferer. -these spirit forces are usually represented in smooth stones or lumps of coral resin found in streambeds, and consequently become the focus of the identification of the patient with the spirits. -the seclusion of the sufferer and instruction in the esoteric knowledge of the Nkita is the first stage of teaching by the Nkita leader. -the site of this seclusion is called vwela in kikongo and is a common feature in all Ngoma initiations. Bilumbu is another cult of affliction but as practiced by the Luba-Kasi. The kilumbu (singular bilumbu) is a medium of the spirits who interprets the misfortune of others. Bilumbu mediums enter this role after having their own possession or disturbances, and having been told by diviners that they have bilumbu, that is the gift of prophecy or divination.

Ngoma rituals usually use among other things the shaking or rattles to call the spirits.

The use of mpemba Pemba chalk is sprinkled on clients to help them enter into trance more quickly. Pemba chalk is also put on the forehead and temples and under ones feet and under the pillow to help one in dreams to see the truth about situations. This is also done to return evil intentions back to their perpetrators. Ngoma Defined The term ngoma is widely recognized as connoting performance, drumming, dancing, celebration, and ritual therapy. There is a distinction between entertainment ngoma and healing ngoma (ngoma za kutibu)