African Great Lake Region Tribes

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Gallery Ezakwantu

African Art - Art Africain - Tribal Art - 菲洲艺术 - Afrikanische Kunst

Central and Southern African Tribal Art

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The Great Lake Region of Central Africa

and the

Southern African Connection

The Great Lake Region

The inclusion of the Great Lake Region to our predominately Southern African site is added expose how trade and tribal migration interconnected artifact style and forms, in the vast region between Southern Africa and the Great Lakes.

The Great Lake Region includes a series of lakes in and around the Great Rift Valley. The Rift Valley includes Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria, Lake Kivu, Lake Edward, Lake Albert and Lake Malawi. Present day countries include portions of Burundi, Rwanda, north-eastern Congo, Uganda, north-western Kenya, Tanzania and for some, Malawi and a portion of Mozambique. (Click any cream colored word to learn more about a topic or country.)

Click thumbs for higher resolution images.

Africa's Great Lake Region - The River Nile

In terms of surface area, Lake Victoria is the second largest fresh water lake in the world. Lake Tanganyika is the the world's second largest lake in volume and the second deepest. (below sea level) The entire region has abundant natural recourses, that attracted populations for centuries. Waves of migration predate European arrival. Indigenous migrations into the the lake region initially arrived from the west and later from the north, east and south.

Explorers

John Hanning Speke and Sir Richard Francis Burton

In 1856, Speke and Burton voyaged to East Africa to locate the great lakes, rumored to exist in the centre of the continent. Both men hoped their expedition would locate the source of the Nile. The journey was extremely strenuous. They fell ill from a variety of tropical diseases. Speke suffered severely when he became temporarily deaf after a beetle crawled into his ear, which was later removed with a knife. He also went temporarily blind.

After an arduous journey, the two became the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika, "though Speke was still blind and could not see it". They heard of a second lake in the area, but Burton was too sick to make the voyage. Speke travelled alone, found the lake and christened it Lake Victoria. (Also known as Lake Nyanza - Ukerewe or Nalubaale) It was this lake which eventually proved to be the source of the river Nile. However, Arab traders knew it as the source for well over 700 years. The Al Adrisi map dated from the 1160s, clearly depicts an accurate representation of Lake Victoria and attributes it as being the source of the River Nile.

Trade

One of the earliest influences that connected tribal people was trade. Arab regional trade in gold, ivory, slaves and commercial goods, likely exceeded a millennium. Trade to and from coastal regions, imported and exported ideas, custom and fashion. The Swahili language emerged from the trade. Swahili combined a mix of Bantu languages with Arab and Persian additions. To these, elements of Portuguese, English and German were added at their relevant point of contact. In the Congo, French words became part of Swahili spoken in the south and east. Swahili words are also found imbedded in most Nguni languages, including those spoken by Shona and Zulu peoples.

Trade and the movement of caravans distributed and dispersed people, merchandise, customs, ideas and artifacts. European explorers travelled within the confines of century old trade routes, invariably with a caravan. Adding to the displacement of people and culture, porters, guards or paid scouts would often abandon the journey along the way. Local chiefs offered replacements even slaves, in return for merchandise and the right of passage. Ill servants were left behind. Other servants such as those travelling with Livingstone through Central Africa to Luanda, opted to stay on at the destination, work and earn money. Years later they returned with saleable merchandise to trade. Chokwe related 'others' joined Livingstone on his journey back across Africa through the hinterland, of which many remained permanently in present day Mozambique.

Trade had become so entrenched, that once colonialism took route in East Africa, attempts to control or impede it often resulted in bloodshed. Trade, language and exploration were ultimately vehicles that interconnected what might have otherwise been isolated or secluded tribal peoples. Working together, the forces bound the vast region of the Great Lakes, South East and Southern Africa into a common market. A similarity of art form developed.

Migration

Migrations north, south and east, were additional factors overlapping cultures of the vast region. Bantu speaking peoples from the Congo basin populated the Highveld regions of South Africa during the 12th and 13th centuries. Today they are known as Sotho-Tswana, who include the Basotho (north and south) and baTswana - Tswana Bechwana nations. (Botswana)

The more recent Wars of Calamity, also known as the Mfecane, Lifaqane or Difaqane, took place in the early portion of the 19th century in Southern Africa. These upheavals were far reaching. Nguni peoples from South Africa settled in the Great Lake Region. Both Bantu and Ngoni elements from Swaziland and Zulu regions migrated north, settling in, around and in-between Lakes Malawi, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria.

The peoples of the Great Lake Region and Southern Africa, are themselves all segments of other tribes, composed of very diverse elements. The task of unraveling the complexity of overlap is beyond the wit of man. Trade, language and the movement of people assured art forms connected, duplicated, altered or advanced over time. The same forces continue unabated in all imaginable directions to this day.

Tribal Peoples of the Great Lake Region

Charles Meur - Marc Leo Felix

Ankole - Hima - Iru

Ankole, also referred to as Nkore, is one of the four traditional kingdoms in Uganda. The people of Ankole are called Banyankole or Munyankole. The pastoralist Hima or Bahima, established dominion over the agricultural Iru or Bairu, prior to the nineteenth century. The Hima and Iru established close relations based on trade and symbolic recognition, but as unequal partners in relations. The Iru were legally and socially inferior to the Hima. The symbol of this inequality was cattle, which only the Hima could own. The two groups retained their separate identities through rules prohibiting intermarriage. When marriages occurred, they were invalid. The Hima provided cattle products that otherwise would not have been available to Iru farmers. Because the Hima population was much smaller than the Iru population, gifts and tribute demanded by the Hima could be supplied fairly easily. These factors probably made Hima - Iru relations tolerable, but they were nonetheless reinforced by the superior military organization and training of the Hima. The kingdom of Ankole expanded by annexing territory to the south and east. In many cases, conquered herders were incorporated into the dominant Hima stratum of society. Agricultural populations were adopted as Iru or slaves and treated as legal inferiors. Neither group could own cattle. Slaves could not herd cattle owned by the Hima. Ankole society evolved into a system of ranked status, where even among the cattle owning elite, ties were important in maintaining order.

Ganda

The Ganda, also known as Baganda and Waganda, form another kingdom in Uganda. They inhabit the area north and northwest of Lake Victoria in south the central part of the country. They are the most numerous people in Uganda and their territory is the most productive and fertile. Ganda trace their royal line back 250 years. They are a part of the Bantu who originated in central Africa and migrated into Uganda as early as 1000 AD. By the time of European exploration in 1858, they had evolved a complex system of central government and had a standing army. They served as the primary agents of the British protectorate and were used to subdue and administer the central and eastern regions of Uganda.

Nande

The Nande live to the west - northwest of the Great Lake area in the Congo around Butembo. They have traded gold to visitors since the 8th century and are considered trans-network traders, bound by trust and kinship. Nande wealth is dependent on the existence of their community. Today when most of the country is lacking infrastructure, the Nande leave you with a sense of development for their community.

Nyamwezi

The Nyamwezi or Wanyamwezi, live in the northwest central area of Tanzania near Lake Victoria and Lake Rukwa. The term Nyamwezi is of Swahili origin and translates as "people of the moon". Historically, there have been five tribal groups that make up Nyamwezi, each referring to themselves as Wanyamwezi to outsiders. These people, the Kimbu, Konongo, Nyamwezi, Sukuma, and Sumbwa, were never united. All groups have broadly similar cultures, though it is an oversimplification to view them as a single group of people.

Nyoro

The Nyoro or Banyoro live in Uganda on the east side of Lake Albert. Their ancient legends state that the first humans came down from heaven looking like chameleons and founded mankind.

Shi

The Shi live along lake Tanganyika's northernmost region in the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. They are known as or related to, " the Omushi, Abashi, Amashi, Bashi, Banyabungu, Wanyabungu and Bahavu. Marc Leo Felix wrote in "100 Peoples of Zaire and Their Sculpture"; The Twa pygmies were the original inhabitants of the region, joined later by the bajunji, Bantu dynasties from the West, who arrived with some Lega. The next arrivals were expansionist pastoral groups from Rwanda, and eventually all these groups mingled together. Oral history has it hat they were once divided into clans, which were each politically separate and independent under a clan chief. By the early 20th c. all the peoples had state like political organization under the central authority of supreme chief. Divided in subgroups: Uhavu, Citwinja, Malinjalinja, Cizibaziba, Marongeronge, Ciehinyiehinyi. Felix confirms the Shi religion was; elaborate, complicated by syncretistic tendencies having been overlaid with cults of different origins.

Tutsi and Hutu

The Tutsi are known as Whatussi, Watusi, or Watutsi. The Hutu can be called Bahutu or Wahutu. Between these two groups, the Tutsi hold a historic position as Hutu rulers. This is still true today, regardless of German and subsequent Belgium rule, or the attempted genocide carried out against them in 1994 by Hutu tribesmen.

Tutsi by Casimir Ostoja Zagorski - The Ivy's Albums

At the point of first contact, European explorers were overwhelmingly amazed by the Tutsi. They had organized a society which ruled the majority (Hutu) in Burundi and the Kingdom of Rwanda. The colonialists assumed, even lectured, that these intelligent, strikingly good looking people with long noses, were not originally from sub Saharan Africa at all. They assumed they had immigrated from somewhere else, or were survivors of the lost continent of Atlantis. In their narrow minds, the fact that a Tutsi invariably owned 10 cows or more and ruled a well organized Kingdom, was enough to confirm this. It followed that such organization and long noses could only be explained by European descent, transmitted by way of Ethiopia. Along came DNA testing of the y-chromosome, which exposed that the Tutsi are 100% indigenous African (80% e3a, 4% e3, 1% e3b and 15%B) - as are the Hutu. My goodness!

Tutsi cattle, by Kazimir Ostoja Zagorski - The Ivys Albums - Private Collection

Ushashi

The Ushashi lived at Speke Gulf, southeast of Lake Victoria. Though Shi appears in their tribal name, the Ushashi are not Shi, or vis versa.

Zinza

The Zinza live on the west side of of Lake Victoria and on some of it's islands. They are also known as Echijinja, Echidzindza, Ecizinza, Dzinda, Jinja, Zinja, Dzindza and Kizinza. They share the area with the Sukuma, Haya, Kerewe and Jita. Their language is closely related to Nyankore and Nyoro.

This tribal map assists locating some the tribal peoples mentioned.

Tribal Crafts of Uganda - Margaret Trowell

Margaret Trowell's acclaimed work made her the 20th century authority on Ugandan material culture.

Artifacts

Knife - Scabbards / Beadwork / Wooden Vessels

Many artifacts found in The Great Lake Region and Southern Africa share a commonness, regardless of the great distance which may separate them. A general lack of figurative art and masks is also shared. The functional and visual overlap of cultural artifacts is unmistakable.

Three areas of linked, related or interconnected objects are discussed. (Swords and Daggers - Beadwork - Carved Wooden Containers) Exactly who influenced who will in all likelihood never be agreed upon, or determined.

Swords and Daggers

Who influenced who ?

Private Collection - Wolf-Dieter Miersch Collection

Personal knifes and swords of the Shona-Karanga known as bakatwa were recorded by the Portuguese in the 15th century. Portuguese recorded that small examples were worn on the upper arm, while larger versions were strapped to the hip by means of thong, passed through a carved projection on the forward side of the scabbard.

Private Collection

Above, 15 to 18 centimetre examples worn on the upper arm (6 to 7 inches).

Use this map to help locate South East African Tribes

Charles Meur - Marc Leo Felix

Private Collection

Scabbards were carved in two sections. A stylized projecting foot served to ensure the lower attachment binding did not slip off. Early collected examples were bound with elephant tail hair, sinew or bark fibre. Intricate wirework flourished from the late 1800's. Blades were predominately “ogee in section” or “blood grooved”.

Ogee: (plural ogees) noun - S-shaped curve: a decorative double curve like an elongated and flattened S (Late 17th century. Alteration of ogive)

Blood Grooved: (easy in - easy out) A remarkable stabbing invention!

Private Collection

'Shona knives' are not confined to the 'Shona'. This daggers popularity was widespread amongst the Karanga, Ndau and other peoples. In fact, bakatwa knifes are known to have been attached to rare wooden quivers collected as far away as German Tanganyika. Quivers were constructed in two carved sections, decorated with incised patterns and bound. Designs were similar those found on South East African snuff bottles. (above left)

Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle - Oscar Baumann - page 220 - 1894

The Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi had related quivers made from two sections of wood.

Colin Sayers Collection Bruneaf -1994 Private Collection

Some bakatwa knife examples sported human facial finials. Their concave facial features are associated with Linde, Mwera and Makonde carvers.

Private Collection

Others forms included European styled spoons as dagger hilts. The idea would have been inspired through contact with Portuguese over the centuries. In all cases known to us, spoon examples were forged with African wrought iron.

Tony Prout Collection

Through migration and trade, the Maseko Ngoni of Malawi, as well as Tsonga clans residing in southern Mozambique and South Africa, used bakatwa knife - scabbards. A typically Shona example was labeled as Angoni - Nyasaland 1902 (above). The Ngoni are known to have beaded examples (below left).

Private Collection

Tsonga makers included an enlarged abstract foot, which suggests the face of an elephant. (centre and right). Alternatively, bakatwa knives may exemplify the body of a crocodile.

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Private Collection

Throughout South East Africa, knife and scabbard fashion varied in form. Note the shape of hilts, thongs, lower foot, as well as material used to bind and decorated these examples.

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Private Collection

Along the coastline of South East Africa, aluminium wire was used to decorate objects. Often, a style known as 'chain link' patterns were used (left image).

Wolf-Dieter Miersch Collection

Arab trade and migration advanced the boundaries of the personal knife - scabbard types, between east coast and interior regions. Dr. Franz Stuhlmann collected this trio of knife and scabbards (above) prior to 1894 and labeled them Nyamwezi. The upper example is bound by both imported and African wrought copper wire. The centre example is bound by sinew. The lower examples scabbard was carved in two pieces, then bound with fine copper and brass wire.

Franz Stuhlmann (1863-1928) was a German zoologist and explorer born in Hamburg. After studying at Tübingen and Freiburg, he travelled to East Africa in 1888. During the revolt of the Arabs in 1890, he entered the German corps of defence as a lieutenant. At Mlembule, he was severely wounded. After his recovery he joined the expedition of Emin Pasha to the lake region, where he was sent ahead from Undussuma to Lake Victoria. He reached the coast at Bagamoyo in July 1892. From there he returned to Germany with cartographic material, as well as valuable tribal collections. He added to this when he undertook another trip to German East Africa during 1893 and 1894. Between 1908 and 1910 he was secretary of the Colonial Institute in Hamburg.

Knife and scabbards of the Great Lakes Region are similar and dissimilar to one another. The Stuhlmann examples expose the predictable differences within the confines of the Nyamwezi. The centre example echoes the carving of the beaded Maseko Ngoni example.

This visual confusion begins to unravel when you consider that one group consumed the other and that the 'other' had already been absorbed by itself. By the mid 19th century, the Southern African Jere Ngoni had been absorbed by the Nyamwezi. Prior to this, Ngoni had traveled north and east of the Luangwa valley, absorbing some Sukuma peoples which were captured. The Sukuma themselves were one of five tribal groups who made up Nyamwezi.

Through war, slavery and proximity to one another, each tribal group was no more then a cultural fragment of another. The other, itself a portion of others and so on and so forth over, developing and changing over the expanse of time.

Wolf-Dieter Miersch Collection

At a glance, the related swords and daggers above resemble one another, but there are differences. From left to right, attribution is Ankole, Shi, Tutsi, Shi and Zinza. Shi blades have a strong middle rib. The Tutsi example is decorated with the same patterns found on their basket ware, vessels and room dividers. This Zinza example has a horn hilt and its blade is not forged ogee.

Small swords were owned by higher ranking people as scepters, a custom duplicated far away in Southern Africa with small knobkerries and whisks. Immediately west of the Lakes Region, chiefs held big pompous staffs and/or weapons.

Click an image to enlarge.

Offered by Galerie Ezakwantu

This circa 1900 example exhibits the delicacy of Shi status weapons.

Ushashi - Kollmann Pg 142 Danny De Waele - Belgium

Portions of the Paul Kollmann collection were published in 1898 in, "Der Nordwesten unserer Ostafrikanischen Kolonie". Kollmann was a Senior Lieutenant in German East Africa who extensively travelled the region. The example (above right) has Ankole, Hutu, Shi and Tutsi elements, but most likely is Ushashi.

Kollmann's pg 142 includes a related Ushashi example.

Private Collection Zinza - Kollmann Pg 142 Wolf-Dieter Miersch Collection

Kollmann collected and illustrated the Zinza example (centre).

Private Collection Private Collection Wolf-Dieter Miersch Collection

Note the resemblance of Zinza hilt terminations to those of 19th century Zulu ear plugs (centre). In this case, horn was the material of choice which two distant cultures fashioned their artifacts with.

Private Collection

The Venda and Tsonga of South East Africa are known to have added phallic finials to their bowls, chain links and headrests.

Marc Ginzberg - African Forms Private Collection

The Shona-Karanga also produced double Bakatwa knife-scabbards (left). Exceedingly rare were visually related Nande examples, particularly doubles (right). The level of sophistication displayed in the Nande prestige object is profound.

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

Regional machete type knives called mugishu. were used for centuries by the Hutu, Tutsi, Rundi, Hima, Havu, Hunde, Shi, Fuliru and Lega. The items function was for chopping, hacking and occasionally as a weapon. The Tutsi however miniaturized and beaded their examples. Higher ranked persons used them as status objects.

Small bone versions of Lega origin were used at initiations. (Bwami)

20th Century Postcard Ivys Albums - Zagorski

Tutsi royal headbands were made with he same design patterns and choice of bead colour as early collected examples of the Ba Tonka or Tonga peoples. The Ba Tonka lived far to the south along the river Zambezi, which flows between present day Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Ba Tonka - Ivy Albums - Barbara Tyrrell

Charles Meur - Marc Leo Felix

Tribal Magazine - 2004 Ba Tonga / Ba Tonka Private Collection

Tutsi and Ba Tonga headdresses were visually similar. Note the example worn by mwami Mutara III Rudahigwa (above left) and that of early seen Ba Tonka fashion (above and below right).

Ba Tonka Tutsi Ba Tonka

Ivy Albums - Barbara Tyrrell Ivys Albums - Zagorski Ivy Albums - Barbara Tyrrell

Beaded neck pieces of the Tutsi and Ba Tonka were constructed and designed in a like manor. North and south trade goes far to bind the distant tribal peoples similarities .

Private Collection

The knobkerrie to the left of the above trio is either early Ba Tonka or north eastern Shangaan related. (Zimbabwe - Malawi) The centre staff appears a facsimile to that held by mwami Mutara III Rudahigwa (below). To the right of the image is a diviners dance wand of Eastern Cape Thembu origin. Seen together, these confirm the beading technique known as the brick-stitch was widely spread, as was in this case, the choice of color.

Tribal Arts - The Art of Rwanda Tutsi - Summer 2004

Wolf-Dieter Miersch Collection Galerie Ezakwantu

Brick-stitch beading was used to decorate the Tutsi calabash (left).

The Thembu used the technique to bead the calabash adornment charm. (right)

Postcard - Circa 1900 Wolf-Dieter Miersch Collection

Tutsi fibre basket-ware is likely the finest and most detailed of any world culture. Such baskets were made as personal prestige objects. Harvard University Art Museums Gallery - Series No 32 - 2001 "Marking Place: Spatial Effects of African Art" reads; These baskets, used to hold jewellery and currency, replicated the shape of buildings in the region...woven structures with conical roofs...suggesting a connection between the value of their contents and the wealth of the individual "contained" within the architecture.

Tutsi baskets were also beaded.

Zigzag lines found in Tutsi beadwork, pokerwork and basketry, are repeated on room dividing screens.

Clive Loveless - Tutsi Display - February 2008 Tribal Art Show

The distinctive lines are evident throughout virtually all Tutsi status objects. The basket-ware in the display below are called agakoko, or prestige presentation trays, and predate 1930.

Andre Kirbach Collection

Three Tutsi Baskets

South African Museum Collection - Cape Town

To end this section, have a look at the basket form and detailed repair on this Pondo basket.

Pondo baskets were used as milk containers, much like the wooden examples that follow.

Wooden Containers

Wooden containers from the Great Lake Region and Southern Africa have similarities appearing limitless. People used wooden vessels and cups, to store tobacco, meat, milk and traditional beer. Relatively lightweight wood was used in their manufacture. Pokerwork, the art of scorching, was applied to seal the wood and decorate, the latter much like human scarification adorned the body.

Wooden vessels were often upraised, either by adding feet, abstract structures, or concave supports. Visual aesthetics aside, the intention was to keep the body of the wooden container from deteriorating through contact with the ground moisture and or insects. In this way, objects remained functional for a longer period.

Private Collection Tribal Crafts of Uganda - Margaret Trowell - Plate 18 - 1953 Private Collection

The two beer cups on either side of the drawing above are Ovambo (Ambo) from Angola and/or Namibia. Their base closely resembles Ugandan cup catalogue letters A, B and C, while drawings J, K, L, and M resemble the Chopi cup (below left). Drawing N resembles an unusual Zulu example below (right).

Private Collection

Likewise drawings J, K, L and M mirror the base form to the Chopi cup from Mozambique (left and below), while N appears much like those from South East Africa of Swazi and Zulu origin (right).

Click thumbs to view other upraised Chopi examples.

Private Collection

Another Ovambo Container with Lid

Razel - Volkerkunde Vol 2 Page 71 Private Collection

19th century Bechwana examples include related upraised construction.

Razel - Volkerkunde Vol 2 Page 94

Click thumbs below to view other related examples.

Matabele, Bechwana, Ndebele, Nyanja and Bechwana

Private Collection

Himba, Mwela, Ngambwe and Zemba from Angola and Namibia used upraised containers to store fat.

Private Collection - by Muhlati

Muhlati was the most famous carver in South East Africa during the first half of the 20th century.

In 1927 Henry Junod wrote in The Life of a South African Tribe; 'The finest specimen of Native art that I ever saw is the carving of a huge panther about to devour a human being, the work of Muhlati, a sculptor living in the neighbourhood of Lourenso Marques. This artist, who was very proud of his work, and asked a tolerably high price for it, claimed to be able to carve anything and everything: birds, four-footed beasts, or men. He was famous throughout the land for his talent.

Muhlati's prestige artworks were upraised to protect the objects themselves. In the example above, he included a wooden beam that runs between the figures feet and a Zulu-Swazi styled neck rest as a seat. The figure is carved in as a Tsonga elder holding what we would today identify as a Chopi cup. Effectively, Muhlati drew from three to four tribal cultures when composing this object.

Private Collection - Perhaps by Muhlati

This extraordinary wooden vessel was likely carved by a Tsonga from the Tembe clan. It is large, measuring just over 90 cms long, or 3 feet. This prestige item was purchased for Barbara Tyrrell (author-artist) in1951 by her husband while they travelled the Pongola River, upstream from present day Maputo.

It is not known to us if Muhlati was alive in 1951, but the monitor lizard was executed with the sort of meticulous attention to detail and humour the artist would have fashioned.

Private Collection - ex Barbara Tyrrell

If the container is not another 'upraised' Muhlati sculpture, then certainly was made by an equally gifted carver. The overlapping rim or lip 'invention' used and the precession given thereto, is unprecedented in the South East Africa carvings. Far to the west, the Mbunda of Angola regularly used this technique to keep lids on their wooden vessels. Mbunda contact with Portuguese may very well be the vehicle which transported the idea to Muhlati and/or others. Portuguese labour exchanges occurred often and affected South East African carving along the coastline, north to south.

Private Collection - ex Barbara Tyrrell

The half moon and star decorations resulted from contact with Islam and Arab coastal trade.

The Leguaan's feet are angled downwards, so as to raise or lift the vessel.

Chameleon

Tribal Crafts of Uganda - Margaret Trowell - Plate 18 - 1953

Margaret Trowell's catalogued drawings E, F, G and I were attributed as Nyoro wooden vessels. Nyoro meat containers were supported by multiple legs with sharply flexed outside planes. The legs closely resemble those of a chameleon, the reptile which Nyoro legend confirms the first humans who came to earth looked like.

Click thumbs to view Chameleon Legged Pots

Private Collection

Nyoro chiefs and headmen used the bowls to serve meat.

Wood was stained red-brown by rubbing it with a root. Pokerwork was added for decoration.

Franz Stuhlmann - Plate V

Franz Stuhlmann's Plate V - Item 24 displays a 19th century collected Ganda, Nyoro or Bukoba vessel with eight legs.

Private Collection

This massive Nyoro meat tray has twelve legs.

Razel - Volkerkunde - 1895 -Vol 2 - Page 239

Click thumbs (below) to view other rare 4, 6 and 12 legged Nyoro meat containers.

Private Collection

This unusual Chopi - Tsonga prestige container offers 'competition' to the Nyoro chameleon vessel. Note the inclusion of poker-worked chevron zigzags surrounding its upper rim.

Clive Loveless

These carved wooden Tutsi containers appear to be part of what we would normally describe as a Zulu related headrest or neck rest. The pokerwork decorating the support and upper rim of the objects mid section also typifies SE African chevron design.

Clive Loveless wrote: Objects like this straddle the line between old tradition and new innovation in the early to mid-20thC. It is also important to note that a basket or container lovingly made as a prestige object is more than just a container to hold an object or substance. It is also symbolic "space", "home" and "form" of tribal identity.

Private Collection

Click thumbs to view other Zulu - Tsonga related Southern African neck rests with related chevron pokerwork.

Click thumbnails to view larger images.

Private Collection

This South East African Tsonga meat tray displays similar pokerwork decoration to that of the Tutsi carved container trio and the illustrated South East African Nguni Zulu related headrests.

Private Collection

Not to be outdone, Zulu artists also tested the boundaries of tradition and innovation in shape and form.

Private Collection

Zulu meat trays were carved upraised from the ground.

Private Collection

Innovation was paramount in the design and function in this abstract bull meat tray.

Private Collection

This delightful example was inspired by design humor.

Private Collection

Traditional Zulu meat trays were bold with powerful form.

Click thumbnails to view larger images.

Private Collection

Click these thumbs to view other complicated SE African wooden status containers.

Private Collection

This triple meat tray was the property of John Dunn. Dunn was known as the "White Chief of Zululand" and acted as Cetshwayo's secretary and diplomatic advisor. John's wife Catherine, was known as his "Great Wife", in that she shared him with 48 other Zulu wives.

John Dunn (1824-1895) and a rare photograph of one of his Zulu wives.

Private Collection

The nearby Swazi peoples produced triple meat trays, as well as doubles and singles.

Private Collection

Swazi single meat trays are known for their exceptional symmetry.

Private Collection

The Ngoni fled north to present day Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia in the first half of the 19th century. They took with them articles of culture and the case of the Jere, meat trays with single handles.

Tribal Arts - The Art of Rwanda Tutsi - Summer 2004 - Page 83

Above lower right, Tutsi double prestige cups from the Jeanne Walschot Collection.

Private Collection

This Tsonga double container connected by links was collected by Jurgen Witt near Tzaneen, South Africa.

Private Collection

The Mbunda expanded from Angola into Western Zambian from the mid 19th century. Their wooden vessels were more often then not, incorrectly attributed to the Lozi, as were those of the Southern Bechwana tribes moving north. Mbunda grain storage containers were called tubana and as seen above, sometimes had support structures that equaled or excelled the complexity of Nyoro artists. A miniature tubana container with removable lid was carved inside a neck rest, the headrest style itself adopted from the Luba complex of peoples.

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