Apron; Cloak; Sekhutane

Item

Title

Apron; Cloak; Sekhutane

Creator

Unrecorded

Description

Physical Description: Woman's goat-skin apron or cloak with broad hide strings attached to the top edge. Near the bottom of the apron are three ornaments of coral-orange, white and black beads sewed to leather discs. [Royal Pavilion & Museums]
Contextual Description: Beads signify Kalanga style and colours, see makgabe r4007/18 for similar beadwork colouring. TS comments

Publisher

Making African Connections

Date

Pre 1899

Type

PhysicalObject

Format

Whole: 780 mm x 620 mm
Animal skin

Identifier

R4007/6

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.

This object was on display in the exhibition 'Missionary Collectors' in the James Green Gallery of World Art, from July 2004 to January 2005.
William Charles Willoughby
Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
1893-1898

Space/Place

Botswana, Southern Africa, Africa
Cultural Group: Kalanga

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Item sets

Linked resources

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Relation
Title Alternate label Class
Beadwork
Leatherwork