Luguru Peoples, Tanzania

Throughout Africa, sculpted stools are not only thrones for sitting but also metaphorical seats of sacred authority and royal power. In Tanzania and eastern Congo, a “high-backed stool” was the emblem of choice for a number of chieftaincies. The back, like in this example, is often carved with the characteristics of a woman, with breasts protruding from the plank against which one would have leaned one’s back. The implication of the design is that the chair is one of “embrace,” in which the chief becomes fused with a symbol of his maternal line of descent.

The elegant designs on the back are similar to coastal Swahili artists’ use of chip-carved design motifs on commemorative posts and doors. Yet the actual design on the back side of TMA’s stool is identical to a highly symbolic motif of isosceles triangles found on the high-backed stools of the Tabwa peoples, who reside in eastern Congo. These emblems are called blamwezi, “the rising of the new moon,” and symbolize hope, rejuvenation, and rebirth.

Wood, 19th to 20th century
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1994.21