Mfengu Staff
By the Master of the Shortened
Finger
Fingo Figured Staff
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Staff - Master of the Shortened Finger - Circa
1900
The Mfengu are
Nguni people of Bhele, Hlubi and Zizi origin. They fled Natal during the early 19th
century upheavals known as the
Mfecane - Lifaqane or Difaqane. Their tribal name Ama-Fengu,
Fingo or Mfengu, means 'The Wanderers' or 'Foreigners'. Mfengu speak
Xhosa, but do not consider themselves Xhosa at all.
Confirming this, their sticks and staffs are unalike those of other Xhosa
peoples, in that they were carved straight.
Mlanjeni's War - Eighth Frontier
War - Circa 1851
This staff's unknown
carver is today referred to as the Master of the Shortened Finger. He lived in
one of the many scattered clusters of Fingo settlements near East London and
most probably at Mooi Plaas. Most of his
work surfaces in the colonel context - in and around East London,
a city founded in the mid 1840's. The carver was popular in his time - producing
work for both
native and European markets.
Sticks were carved with cane or umbrella type handles, while his staffs were
surmounted with a traditional Nguni knob. He produced inlayed
pipes to be sold to nearby communities, a skill acquired from the Xhosa. A staff by this Master of the Shortened Finger, was field collected at Mooi Plaas in the
latter part of the 20th century.
This master
had well defined signature
traits, one of which was an extended middle finger found on
either hand. The representation is found on virtually all known figurative work by
the carver, including a rare standing figure. This is not surprising
when considering that at birth, Mfengu removed the first digit 'or joint'
of an infants smallest finger. It may well be that the intention of the carver
was to depict a shorter pinky finger and not that of
the enlarged 'middle finger'.
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Staff - Master of the Shortened
Finger - Circa 1900
A centrally
placed crica 1900 European dressed male with top hat - appears near
the center of the staff. Examples in the Johannesburg Art Gallery,
Wits University Art Gallery and Ulundi Museum - Kwa Zulu Monuments
Council - all date to the first half of the 20th century. Other staffs
in the collections of the Albany Museum and the South African
National Gallery ex Sotheby's JHB - may date to the end of the 19th century.
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This carver
typically inserted early 20th century plastic of many colors, to highlight the portions of subjects attire
which most fascinated him, such as a tie, a waistcoat, or top coat. Iron
or steel 'finishing nails', were inserted into the figure so as to simulate buttons.
In the case of our staff,
a long bent nail creates a delightful representation of a fob-watch (pocket watch).
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