The Makonde are an ethnic group in southeast Tanzania and northern Mozambique, they presently live throughout Tanzania and Mozambique and have a small presence in Kenya. The Makonde are almost the only ethnicity in East Africa to create fairly naturalistic sculptures, primarily maternity figures, which are intended to ensure the fertility of the fields and women. The Makonde had no chiefs and leadership was held by clan heads and spiritualists. This staff called Disimbo was commissioned by young Makonde men from a carver or would make themselves decorative sticks with figurative designs that would be used as dance accessories at initiation ceremonies. This particular staff was designed to balance comfortably on the arm of a person. The long, narrow nose and thick, flowing beard of the finely carved head that surmounts this Simbo suggests that it is intended to represent a European. It has a dark brown patina and signs of old age.
- Material: Wood
- Condition: Good
- Age:approx 50-60yrs
- Origin: Mozambique
- SKU: LMCL-045
- Weight: 0.8 kg
- Dimensions: 3 x 76.4 x 2.3 cm