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A cross within a circle, marking four moments of a life.
Also known as: Dikenga, Yowa cross, Kongo cross, Cross in a circle
The dikenga is a cross in a circle whose four points mark birth, life, death and rebirth, with the horizontal line dividing the living world from the world of the dead. It arrived in the Americas with enslaved Kongo people and appears in African-American archaeological contexts.
Denotes the Kongo cosmogram: an equal-armed cross within a circle, its four points marking the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth.
Contexts: History
Divides the cosmos at its horizontal axis into the world of the living above and the world of the dead below, the vertical axis being the passage between them.
Contexts: History
Appears in archaeological contexts in the Americas at sites associated with enslaved people of Kongo origin, marked on floors, pots and objects.
Contexts: History
Is not a Christian cross despite the shape, and predates Kongo contact with Christianity.
Contexts: History
An equal-armed cross drawn inside a circle, sometimes with a small disc or spiral at each of the four arm ends, and often with arrows indicating an anticlockwise direction.