A chair with three legs, a high, slightly bulging backrest with strikingly protruding breasts, and crowned, centrally, at the upper edge of the backrest, by the head and neck of a so-called ‘Mwana-hiti figure’. The chair is entirely carved from a single piece of hard wood and dyed dark brown. Among the tribes Zaramo, Kwere and Doe, in the eastern coastal regions of Tanzania, the ‘Mwana hiti’ or ‘Wooden child’ (female) is a well-loved sculptural figure which, rather than having a usual hairstyle, sports two high and round hair combs. Small, highly abstract ‘Mwana hiti’ figures play a large role during the initiation of young girls. Used as dolls, they are also however overall positive symbols of fertility, life and much more. Thus they are not merely toys for little girls. Crowned with such double-comb women are also wooden steles, musical instruments, status staffs, vessels, spoons, hairpins, fly whisks etc. — not least, chairs. Just like the present three-legged chair, with its stylistically perfect, carved ‘Mwana hiti head’, with the breasts on the backrest and the geometrical/linear strips of chip-carving at the backrest’s back. The piece exhibits good, shiny usage patina on the frequently touched spots (seat, backrest) as well as scuffing of the colour in the face and on the breasts of the ‘Mwana hiti’. There are chippings on the exposed rims of the backrest, on the double-comb hairstyle, and on the three legs. The round seat has a crack. H: 76 cm; DM: c. 26 cm x 29 cm (seat). First half to mid-20th century. (ME)

Provenance: Belgian Collection.

Lit.: 'Tanzania' by Marc L. Felix & Maria Kecskesi, ill. 200 a/b, 201 a/b, 202 a/b.