Galerie Ezakwantu

African Art       Franschhoek South Africa       Tribal Art

 

 

Central and Southern African Tribal Art

 

 

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Masks / Masques

Neck Rests

Headdresses

 Spoons / Ladles 

Status Objects

Thrones / Stools

 

Tribal Weapons

Wooden Vessels

Figures

Contemporary

Hair Ornaments

Adornment

Miscellaneous

Beer -Wine Cups

 

Musical Instruments

 

Zulu Imbenge

 

Pipes - Snuff Bottles - Snuff Spoons

 

Dolls

 

Clay Pots

 

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African Status Objects

 

 

Contact us for information on these objects, additional images and/or prices.

 

 
 

 

Zulu Maternity Staff

 

By the Baboon Master

 

19th Century

 

 

Galerie Ezakwantu is currently in possession of this important staff, which had been offered at the Bonham's New York November 2007 sale.

 

Bonham's wrote:  The "Baboon Master" is perhaps best known for his prestige staffs surmounted by carved baboons, however it is his compositions depicting men, women and occasionally maternities that are most sought after. This example has not been cut from the original staff as many have.

 

Prior to the auction, a blogger wrote;  Lot 2268, estimated at $20,000-$25,000 is a maternity staff by the "Baboon Master". The staff is complete (many are lacking the shafts as they were often removed for ease of transportation or were seen as dispensable when mounted). The staff has fairly extensive scratches and scrapes on one side, accounting for the low estimate.

 

The blogger made mention to a low estimate, in that he had paid a record price of  $72,000.00 for a staff by the Baboon Master a year earlier, at Sotheby's African Art New York sale. The exceptional staff depicted a baboon atop two half male figures, which as Bonham's pointed out was a better known, or far more common, composition.

 

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The staff measures 93 centimetres, or 36.5 inches.

 

The Baboon Master's identity is unknown. He lived in the 19th century and left for us his masterpiece carvings. The use of staffs was wide spread culturally throughout Southern Africa and was an important feature of ones dress and stature in the community.

 

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Page 73 of Asking for Eyes - The Visual Voice of Southeast Africa reads: Common to staffs by he Baboon Master is the tall and slender compact treatment of form and delicately carved facial features that barely protrude beyond the ovoid mass of the head. Although the babies wrapped around the mothers abdomens are given individual sculptural identity, points of contact and overlap between them and their mothers are used to strengthen the overall emphasis on gently pronounced swelling masses.

 

 

Contact the gallery if you would like to own this hugely important South African artefact.

 

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african swords authoritative staffs ceremonial axes african wirework african staffs figural knobkerries ceremonial axes vintage artefacts vintage antique artefact artifacts artifact artefacts Ken Karner

 

 

Venda Authoritative Staff

 

Tsonga - Zulu Related

 

 

 

        

The black and white images show another figurative knobkerrie most probably by the same hand as in The Art of Africa - MASK AND FIGURES from Eastern and Southern Africa - Holý 1967 - Pg 140

 

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An important example with a pronounced head ring.

 

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Zulu - Tsonga Authorative Staff

 

Circa 1900   

 

              

 

Images depicting circa 1900 Zulu / Tsonga Chiefs

 

 

           

 

Our staff measures 1.48 meters, which assures it was the property of an important Zulu chief or headman.  A snake is carved in relief. The position of the spiral allows the staff to spin upon itself when pirouetted by the owner, creating an eye catching effect.

 

 

The use of staffs was wide spread culturally throughout Southern Africa and was an important feature of ones dress and stature in the community.

      

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Tutsi - Watutsi Prestige Knives

 

Rwanda - Burundi

 

 

 

 

The Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi beaded their knife and scabbards for prestige and status purposes. The brick stitch was used as a beading method, a technique also widely popular in Southern Africa. It's very much Shona related attachment thong is present and the blade forged "ogee' or "blood grooved".

 

 

     

 

       Galerie Ezakwantu                     Jan Elsen - Tribal Arms Monographs - Vol. I   Nr. 3               Galerie Ezakwantu

 

Offered as a trio, the two machete type knifes were called mugishu. Larger examples were used for chopping and hacking for centuries regionally by the Hutu, Tutsi, Rundi, Hima, Havu, Hunde, Shi, Fuliru and Lega. Tutsi beaded miniature examples were status objects owned by higher ranked persons.

 

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Shi Status Sword

 

Burundi- DRC - Rwanda

 

       

 

The Shi live along lake Tanganyika's northernmost region in the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. They are also known as or related to the Omushi, Abashi, Amashi, Bashi, Banyabungu, Wanyabungu and Bahavu. Small swords were owned by higher ranking people as sceptres. This delicate, circa 1900 example is almost completely covered in copper wire.

 

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Fon - Benin / Togo

 

A beautiful Fon ceremonial axe.

 

 

Most Fon art was commissioned by the royal court.

This object was a royal marker of the king and his authority.

 

 

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 The object is old and in pristine condition.

It's blade and attached decorations are made of brass.

 

 

French Postcard - First half of the 20th Century

 

         

              

Stylized animals are symbols associated with particular rulers.

 

The Fon kingdom of Dahomey, which was ruled by the kings of the Alladahonu dynasty for over 200 hundred years, reached its political and economic peak between the early 18th and the mid-19th centuries. After conquering numerous small coastal states, the Fon monopolized the region's slave trade, resulting in phenomenal economic gains. The income helped to support the wealth of the King whose power was absolute. The Fon king was defeated by the French in 1892, and in 1894 the area now known as Bénin, became a colony of France under the name of Dahomey.

 

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Cobra Staff

 

Xhosa Related - Eastern Cape

 

 

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We are certain this staff is from the Eastern Cape, in that another by the artist ha been purchased from a Xhosa in the 1940’s by Mrs. Iris Heyes of Kidds Beach, who was 94 yrs old in 1996.

 

Quality staffs from the region are rarely seen, which makes this an important example dating to the 1st half of the 20th century.

 

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Flywhisk - Ba Rotze Plain

 

Circa 1920's - Mbunda

 

 

This rare item known as a "mafuka" is surmounted with a lion carved from bone.

 

 

The finial gives an almost Eskimo feel.

 

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An excellent early collected example of rare and high form.

 

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Tsonga / Zulu  - Flywhisk

 

Circa 1900   

 

  

This circa 1900 item was owned by a chief, headman or sangoma.

It was most likely the latter, in that it is surmounted with a head of a meerkat.

 

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If owned by a Sangoma, then the tail would be that of the cow sacrificed at his or her ritual initiation ceremony.

      

 

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Authoritative Axe / Circa 1900

 

Tsonga Related

 

 

      

 

An excellent early collected example of rare form.

 

Fine strewn wirework, adorns two sections of the shaft.

 

 

 

Related items published in "Industrie Des Cafres du Sud-Est de L'Afrique"  

 Snelleman / Muller 1891

 

 

      

 

Snelleman and Muller attribute these to "Zambezia". However, it is known that  a number of related examples were also field collected amongst the Tsonga in South Africa during the 1930's.  

 

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Authoritative Knob-Staff

 

Venda - Tsonga

 

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Old South African Collection

This object has a similar feel to two others depicted in a 1958 work by Junod Battiss Franz and Grossert.

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South East African Baboon Staff

 

By the hand of a 20th century master carver.

 

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Two red beads adorn the stunning creatures eyes.

 

 

 

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Swazi Colonial Cane

 

Purchased from the grandchildren of Anna Dekenah - Tzaneen

 

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 The hourglass shapes above and below the Tsonga styled twirls are typical of early collected Swazi staffs.

 

 

 

Made in Swaziland!

 

 

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Zulu / Tsonga Staff

 

Circa 1900

 

 

 

     Of fully wired form.

 

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Execution / Status  Ngulu Sword

 

Ngombe / Doko

 

Belgium Congo - Circa 1900

 

 

   

Ngala Warriors and Tribal People


The first Europeans traveling up the Congo river were impressed by Ngombe cult weapons, but mistakenly attributed them to the Bangala or Ngala, the people they met along the river. The Ngombe themselves lived deep in the forest and had manufactured them.

 

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These drawings and a 19th century photograph show ngulu execution swords at various executions. The back side of the blade was used as a machete for cutting. The tensioned tree with rope assured the victims head would be flung far away into the forest at the moment of decapitation. They believed a person remained "aware" for some time after decapitation. As a result, the deceased final sensual experience was flying through the air to meet his or her ancestors.

 

Werner Fisher & Manfred A. Zirngibl wrote in their book Afrikanische Waffen;

 

This design was selected for cult and execution knives. A knife was created which symbolized the inexorableness on the judgment and execution. This execution knife became a symbol of power and, in a few variations became a ceremonial knife for tribal chieftains. At executions, the condemned man was tied to the ground with ropes and poles. His head was fastened with leather straps to a bent tree branch. In this way it was ensured that the man’s neck would remain stretched. After the decapitation, the head would be automatically catapulted far away.”

 

Executions were not judicial events meant for murders or criminals. They were events carried out for ceremonial purposes and the chosen were invariably slaves.

 

Both the Ngombe and Doko used the ngulu during the 20th century. The knife had transformed itself into a ceremonial dance blade. The reason for this was that by 1900 the Belgium's had forbidden executions, as well as cannibalism, equally widespread.

 

Regardless, the Ngombe continued to use the cult knife in their "Likbeti" dance, which often lasted two days. At the end of the dance a goat was sacrificed for the feast, with a single stroke from the back side of the blade. This goat was consumed, just as the limbs and torso of victims were in former times.

 

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Our sword - knife was rediscovered in Australia during the early 90's.. It was most likely travelled there on a steamship during the first part of the 20th century. By this time, ngulu had become powerful status symbols and as such, important authorative objects. Both the weight and power of the blades function had decreased, while the art form enhanced with the addition of small projections.

 

 

The use of  ngulu blades became more and more wide spread, intended for headmen and chiefs.

 

Above; a Mongo chief in full regalia, holding a ngulu, closely resembling ours. 

 

 

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Xhosa – Ndlambe Dance Mace
 

Circa 1950

 

 

 

       

 

 

The Ndlambe are a sub group of Xhosa and those to which Nelson Mandela hails from. His people referred to these dance maces as “Iboti”. They were owned by men and used at ceremonial events by both sexes. The type, size and color of the beads used confirms the rare example dates to the 1950's.
 

 

  

 

Photographs by Alice Mertens - Published in African Elegance - Joan Broster

 

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