Central and Southern African tribal art and culture

May 17, 2009 1:13 PM

The exceptionally informative and well illustrated Galerie Ezakwantu has great pages on African tribal art, culture and history [due to partial nudity many links NSFW]: African Lip Plugs - Lip Plates; African Currency - African Slave Beads; Jewelry; African Scarification; Thrones and Stools; Shields; Combs; Musical Instruments; Fertility Dolls; Weapons; Zulu Basketry; Contemporary Art; Cups; Tribal Currency; Zulu Ricksha attire; Southern Africa Tribal Migrations; South African Kings and Chiefs. Also some interesting pages on anger about Robert Mugabe; the sale of the gallery owner's property; Cape Dutch Homesteads and blueberry recipes.

A little more about the Body Art of Africa: Scarification among African cultures.

posted by nickyskye (8 comments total)

Thanks for another great post nickyskye. I've always really liked woven stools. You inspired me to find these from Cameroon.
posted by netbros at 3:00 PM on May 17 [1 favorite has favorites]

Here's a pretty great TED talk on fractals in African art and architecture. African Fractals. Ron Eglash's website.
posted by wobh at 3:28 PM on May 17

I've only managed to read through the section on beads so far but it's absolutely fascinating. Thanks for a briliant post; I look forward to exploring it.
posted by jokeefe at 8:06 PM on May 17

Oh wow! What a great find!

The miscellaneous category might be my favorite, if only for the frothy lather the writer works him- or herself into describing the coco de mer.

These scenes are one of many interesting finds. They're drawings of designs carved into calabash gourds made by ethnologist Dr. Alfred Schachtzabel.
posted by Kattullus at 9:12 PM on May 17 [1 favorite has favorites]

Cool post! Looking forward to exploring it once I get home.
posted by allkindsoftime at 10:25 PM on May 17

describing the coco de mer

Ooh, "frothy lather"! That was such fun. Thanks Kattullus for the pointer to check out that delightfully entertaining part of the site.

Those designs carved into calabash gourds are quite similar to the ones used in the Korhogo tapestries from the Senoufu tribe in the Ivory Coast.

My suggestion to the gallery/site owner, to create a search function for the site.
posted by nickyskye at 9:24 AM on May 18

"African Lip Plugs" is a great name for a punk band.

"Zulu Rickshaw Attire" is more a prog-rock thing.

(Neat post, too.)
posted by rokusan at 7:40 AM on May 20

The gallery owner just email me and I wanted to add their additional link to this thread:

In the meantime we just uploaded this.

The page leads to 7 other really interesting pages…

They are amazingly interesting pages of photographs, post cards and slides with information, made by Lister Haig Hunter, 1919 - 1981, Trader - Photographer - Ethnologist, depicting the lives of the tribals in the South Africa area.
posted by nickyskye at 10:18 AM on May 21