Fetish

We had a surprise meeting last night, with an American friend who lived in Chennai some years ago, and is here for a visit. She had lived for many years in Africa, and had a wonderful collection of African art.

photograph by Ramesh Gandhi

I wrote about her house and the art for the Indian interior design magazine, Inside Outside. One of the pieces was especially powerful (I'm quoting myself):

...a fetish from Burkina Faso, made to trap an evil spirit (fetishes may be made to contain benevolent spirits as well). This one is a wooden figure surrounded by a thicket of bronze spikes which have been hammered into it and linked with cord. G says that when she first installed it in her house in Africa, whenever she came near it she felt ill. So she put it in the garden (over the objections of her gardener), talked to it, and gradually, over a period of days, moved it closer to the house and finally inside, where it was no longer harmful....

When G was getting ready to leave Chennai, she asked Ramesh to take pictures of the art. He took a number of pictures, and finally G asked him to shoot the fetish from Burkina Faso. She said that no man can touch it, so she positioned it and then, to Ramesh's surprise, began to talk to it. She said, "Don't be angry, I'm just moving you for ten minutes to this place, no one else will touch you, and after ten minutes you can rest." Ramesh began to take a picture of it, and -- yes! -- the camera broke. G put the fetish back immediately, again speaking softly to it, and apologizing for the disturbance.

Last night I asked her about the piece. She said that she still has it, but now she keeps it in a glass case, to make sure that no one can touch it.