Nyamwezi Staff Figure on Base Tanzania

This wood carved Nyamwezi Staff Figure is a beautiful example of stick figure technique with elongated features and is adorned with beaded jewelry. Figurines were often used in water divination ceremonies. This one includes a base. 

The Nyamwezi are known for their carving that is at best roughly executed and relatively sparsely described in the literature of East African art. However, there are a number of uses given to sculpted figures among the Nyamwezi including witchcraft, magic, and social entertainment. Among the Nyamwezi powerful forces known as bulogi' are organized with cults centered around certain spirits. This includes the manipulation of forces and the development of cults or spirit possession in which members of the Baswezi society are possessed or mounted by the Swezi spirit.

According to oral traditions they settled in west-central Tanzania where they presently live sometime during the 1600s. Called people of the moon by their neighbors in Tanzania the Nyamwezi lived in large settlements and at one time in several kingdoms, but today live in small dispersed settlements under local chiefs.

Height(in): 41.5
Width(in): 3.0
Depth (in): 2.5

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