To invoke their ancestors, Kongo people may go to an actual crossroads like a river, where water meets earth, or draw a dikenga, a symbolic crossroads. The circle pierced by a cross represents the physical boundary where living people and ancestors meet. Other boundaries, such as the horizon, can represent similar junctures of the material and spiritual worlds.

As enslaved Kongo people were taken to the Americas, they brought with them their spiritual beliefs and symbols. These dikenga designs appear in religious art in Africa and the Americas.