This small fetish figure is meant for personal use (communal fetishes are bigger) and displays the Teke characteristics: slightly bent legs, a columnar torso, an enlarged head with a trapezoidal beard, a typical teke headdress and the leftover fetish material in an abdominal cavity. It was probably enveloped with more fetish material covered with a sack from which the head and feet protruded. Each figure has its specific purpose not related directly to its appearance. For example, when a figure is carved for a newborn child, part of the placenta is placed in the stomach cavity of the figure while the rest is buried inside the father's hut (where the family's fetish figures are kept). The figure serves to protect the child until puberty. Figures of identical appearance also serve for success in hunting, trading, and other activities, each figure's purpose is known only to the owner. These figures protect and assist the Teke. Often the magical substance "Bonga" is placed all around the body with a cloth. The Bonga is composed of various materials, but one of the main ingredients is whitish clay or chalk, which represents their ancestor's bones, thus conveying protective power for the Teke. Often it is mixed with the nail clippings or the hair of a revered person, with leaves of specific plants, various parts of snakes or leopards, etc.