Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Mask from Gabon Two Chiwara c. late 19th early 20th centuries, Art Institute of Chicago.Female (left) and male, vertical styles. Most African sculpture from regions south of the Sahara was historically made of wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than a few centuries ago, while older pottery figures are found from a number of areas.
The wood, which varies from yellowish to rosy reds and rich browns, is valued for woodworking, and makes good charcoal and fuel wood. The tree exudes a red sap called kino, which is used as a dye in tanning and cloth-making. As a legume, the tree harbors rhizobia that return nitrogen to the soil, making it more fertile. Such plants are ...
The tree is known to the Yoruba as ìrókò, logo or loko and is believed to have healing properties. [5] Iroko is known to the Igbo people as ọjị wood. [6] It is one of the woods sometimes referred to as African teak, [7] although it is unrelated to the teak family. The wood colour is initially yellow but darkens to a richer copper brown ...
Dalbergia melanoxylon (African blackwood, grenadilla, or mpingo) in French Granadille d'Afrique is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to seasonally dry regions of Africa from Senegal east to Eritrea, to southern regions of Tanzania to Mozambique and south to the north-eastern parts of South Africa. The tree is an important timber ...
The wood polishes well and is well known in tropical Africa as Mukwa when used to make good quality furniture that has an attractive light brownish-yellow colour. It can also be used for curios, and implements. Since the wood does not swell or shrink much it is great for canoe building. Furniture and curios are often made from the reddish ...
Modern Makonde art is an integration of dated practices of woodwork met with a demand of artistic woodcarving of the modernized world. After the introduction of road systems in the plateaus between Tanzania and Mozambique by Portuguese troops during World War I, the traditional sense of the practice began to shift to meet new social and economic demands. [3]
The wood is dense and very hard, difficult to plane, but drills, sands and turns well. It is termite resistant. It was once used for railway sleepers and is now prized for ornamental work and furniture. It burns very slowly with intense heat, and is often used for a fire which is intended to burn all night in order to keep wild animals at bay.
Afzelia africana was used in the Middle Ages for ship building. [6] It is one of the traditional djembe woods. [7] The building of a reconstructed 9th-century Arab merchantman, the Jewel of Muscat, required thirty-eight tons of Afzelia africana wood, which was supplied from Ghana. Curved trees were chosen for the ship's frames and timbers. [8]