The Nkisi is a figure of a woman, interwined with a gourd or bowl filled with sacred substances, including chalk, oils, and plant medicines. Used by the Bwana Vidye (royal diviner), the object served as a bridge between the living and the ancestral world. The female form is not incidental; among the Luba, women are understood as the primary vessels of memory, knowledge, and spiritual authority. The calabash she holds is both an instrument and an archive; it activates, heals, and remembers.