Snuff Container; Nakana

Item

Title

Snuff Container; Nakana

Creator

Unrecorded

Description

Physical Description: Small dark bottle-shaped snuff-container decorated container with verticale copper bands and studs. The colour is dark brown with a lighter transluscent brown band near base.
Contextual Description: 01:57:10 We were both remarking on the finish [of the snuff boxes] and the, you know, tidiness, [as if] people were using machines but they were using hands.RHH: They’re very tactile little objects, they’re very pleasing to hold.
SL: Yeah. Transcription by KL of MAC_BB_20190817_RPM3 SL Interview with Tshupo Ntono, Village Elder, Language: Setswana with English translations by SL, 2019
Contextual Description: SL 35:22
is this also like now you see the nice [decoration], flatten the copper wires, made some grooves on them and inserted the copper wire as some decoration.

The above notes are from a transcription by Kathleen Lawther of a discussion between Gase Kediseng, JoAnn McGregor, Nicola Stylianou, Scobie Lekhuthile and Winani Thebele which took place at the Khama III Memorial Museum on the 5th of August 2019. To listen to the full recording please follow the link below.

Publisher

Making African Connections

Date

Pre 1899

Type

PhysicalObject

Format

Whole: 68 mm x 34 mm
Horn; Copper

Identifier

R4007/52

Source

Collected by Reverend William Charles Willoughby, a Christian missionary, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate (1885-1966). It is now the Republic of Botswana, having gained independence from Britain in 1966.
From 1889-92 Willoughby was pastor at Union Street Church, Brighton (now The Font pub). From 1893 to 1898 he worked for the London Missionary Society in Bechuanaland. He assembled this collection of objects during this period. This was a period of social and technological changes and these objects represent traditional lifestyles and skills, rather than the contemporary lives of the people Willoughby met.

Willoughby's collection was loaned to Brighton Museum in 1899 when he returned to the UK. The loan was converted into a donation in 1936, and accessioned as acquisition R4007.

Some objects were re-numbered with the WA (World Art) numbering system in the 2000s. These numbers have been reverted to the original R4007/... numbers where possible for consistency in 2019.
William Charles Willoughby
Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
1893-1898

Space/Place

Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
Cultural Group: Tswana

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

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Relation
Title Alternate label Class
Snuff