High-backed chief’s stool
(Nyamwezi), late 19th century.

Tanzania. Wood, height: 107 cm.

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,

Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Museum für

Völkerkunde, Berlin.

 

 

Known for both its history, once property of the Sultan of Buruki in eastern Unyamwezi, and its aesthetic qualities, this is arguably the most famous piece of Nyamwezi art. Generally revealing male or female attributes, stools with high backs were sometimes used in pairs and reserved for chiefs. This particular example shows a human figure carved on the dorsal side of the high back, where the head and hands projected from the edge as if to protect or embrace the occupant. The beaded eyes, lean facial structure, and prominent, pursed lips are very characteristic of the Nyamwezi, though the base of the stool is what mainly identifies it - the three convexly curved legs which alternate with protruding legs.

 

 

Furniture and Utensils

 

The furniture, always crude, comprises of hardly anything but the beds, most of which are simple mats, stools of various forms, urns, and calabashes playing the role of coffers, cupboards, and receptacles for all sorts of purposes. Three lumps of hardened clay or three stones disposed in a triangle mark the place of the hearth and serve as a support for the kettle. Vases of clay and of wood often ornamented and of a graceful aspect, a large wooden mortar with its pestle, or a mill composed of two stones, some spatulas for stirring the porridge, some wooden spoons, baskets in numerous forms, constitute the utensils of the household. An iron hoe with a very short wooden handle, takes the place of a plough, a shovel, and a spade. An adze and a crude axe are the tools of the carpenter; an iron bar serving as a hammer, a stone plate in place of an anvil, some pinchers and an ingenious bellows form the material of the smith. Flint-locks, most generally of stone, elsewhere bows and poisoned or non-poisoned arrows, lances, javelins or throwing knives of complicated and elegant forms, short sabres and straight-swords, large and small clubs are the arms of the hunters and warriors, certain of whom also utilise shields of leather or of basket work; the fishermen use various kinds of nets (seines, cast-nets, hoop-nets, etc.), weirs, and often harpoons, and do not disdain even the line, held in the hand without the intermediary of a pole and not carrying a float.

 

 

Clothing and Decoration

 

It is the clothing which, perhaps, presents the greatest variety from one people to another. Sometimes one sees, especially among the Muslims, Negroes clad in “bubus” and overcoats of cotton, of silk or of velvet, ornamented with very prettily worked embroideries; sometimes the costume is reduced to a short blouse without sleeves and to a sort of swinging trunks; sometimes the blouse and the trunks are missing, being replaced by a large loincloth of cotton or sometimes of bark, which is carried like a Roman toga, or by a simple strip of cloth passed between the buttocks; sometimes one perceives no other trace of clothing than a simple case into which the extremity of the sexual organ disappears, as among the Bassari of upper Gambia, the Lobi and the Birifor of the middle Black Volta, certain Bechuana of the Transvaal, or even a simple string, serving to hold this organ, as among many of the Bobo and the Dagari, or again an apron of leather which covers only the hind part of the body, as among the Sara of Chari. The same is true of the women: by the side of Wolofs disappearing under five or six multi-coloured loincloths and as many ample, long-sleeved tunics, one may meet Senufo ladies having no other clothing than a package of leaves or straw, not to mention the most frequent case, which is that of a loincloth fastened around the waist and leaving the torso naked. However sumptuous or wretched their costumes may be, Negro women always have a great love of ornamentation. Here also, what a diversity of manifestations! Gold and silver jewellery, generally of very great weight, but of a handiwork which is often very fine and sometimes of very artistic pattern, is spread in profusion on the body, the head, the hands, and the feet of certain elegants of Senegal, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and Sudan; beads of all kinds, rings and ornaments of ivory or copper are seen almost everywhere; often, also, style demands that there be imbedded in the lips, little plugs of quartz, wisps of straw, or disks of ivory or metal, some of which are so large that the lip that carries them is transformed into a racket-like shape.

 

There is another sort of ornamentation, extremely common among the two sexes, which consists in decorating the skin of the cheeks, the forehead, the neck, or the chest, or all parts of the body at once, with scarifications in lines or in points, taking all sorts of forms, simple or complicated. Among some tribes, it seems that certain, at least, of these mutilations, are ethnic marks; among many others, they have no other aim than to augment the beauty of the subject who bears them.