Orange gourd container etched with scenes of people, vehicles and horses, and geometric border · The Making African Connections Digital Archive

Title

Orange gourd container etched with scenes of people, vehicles and horses, and geometric border

Creator

Creator Unrecorded

Subject

Vessel

Description

Orange gourd container decorated with etched scenes of people around the widest part of the gourd. There are thick vertical lines of etched hatching at two points, demarcating the scenes depicted. Some of the figures are numbered, this is likely to be a later addition made by the Powell-Cotton sisters or subsequent cataloguers. The first two of the figures to the right of one line (numbered 6 and 7) are stylised or depict people wearing masks. The first has a large oval head with horizontal bands of etching across the top half, a stylised face and a line of fringing or spiky beard below the chin. There is a protrusion like a large feather sticking out the top of the head. The second figure is depicted wearing a mask with a long nose or snout. Both figures are holding objects. Moving from left to right the next three figures have less detailed faces and all have long hair or head dresses. They are also holding objects, perhaps bottles or tools. Each of these five figures are depicted in outfits made up of geometric designs, some with fringing around the arms and legs. To the right is a large object, similar in height to the human figures, which may be a tank. It is made up of dense cross-hatching in a flat oval shape, with a triangle on top, with two diagonal protrusions and a cross shape on top. There is a human figure, less detailed than the others, depicted running away from the tank, holding a gun and with a pipe in their mouth. Continuing from left to right there is a rectangular block decorated with geometric shapes, possibly a shield, then another figure, holding a gun and with a look of distress on their face, moving in the opposite direction (towards the first figures) followed by another tank or vehicle. This second vehicle is more detailed and shows two figures inside it, one holding a gun and one driving with a steering wheel. To the right of this is another thick vertical line, followed by a figure on horseback wearing a European style hat. Around the top of these scenes is a border of geometric shapes. At the bottom of the scenes there is a plain horizontal line. The lower half of the gourd is mostly plain, with only one etching below the line, underneath the figure numbered 9, which may be a person in a boat.