Bracelet; Lesêka

Item

Title

Bracelet; Lesêka

Creator

Unrecorded

Description

Physical Description: Bracelet made of twisted wire, comprised of 9 double twists arranged in rows with 3 iron twists in the centre and 3 copper twists on either side. The twists are held together with wire wrapping at the centre, which is decorated with copper wire in a diamond shape, and at either end, where the bracelet fastens with a wire hook and eye.
Contextual Description: WT 14:10I don't even know why people decided to abandon some of this stuff because they're really nice really if you bring them back today people will buy them.

NS 14:17
Yeah, you can imagine them in Botswana craft, tourists paying a lot of money for them

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: 67 mm x 67 mm x 15 mm

Identifier

R4007/32/3

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

Item sets