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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.
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]
Avodire wood has long been valued in furniture for its naturally lustrous surface, which has led to the name African Satinwood. Commonly, the highly figured wood is used for veneers in panelling and marquetry. A preparation from the bark of this plant is used by Baka people in southeastern Cameroon to stun fish. [9]
Central Zimbabwe contains the "Great Dyke" – a source of serpentine rocks of many types including a hard variety locally called springstone.An early precolonial culture of Shona peoples settled the high plateau around 900 AD and “Great Zimbabwe”, which dates from about 1250–1450 AD, was a stone-walled town showing evidence in its archaeology of skilled stone working.
Lignum vitae is hard and durable, and is also the densest wood traded (average dried density: ~79 lb/ft 3 or ~1,260 kg/m 3); [4] it will easily sink in water. On the Janka scale of hardness, which measures hardness of woods, lignum vitae ranks highest of the trade woods, with a Janka hardness of 4,390 lbf (compared with Olneya at 3,260 lbf, [5] African blackwood at 2,940 lbf, hickory at 1,820 ...
The name sapele comes from that of the city of Sapele in Nigeria, where there is a preponderance of the tree.African Timber and Plywood (AT&P), a division of the United Africa Company, had a factory at this location where the wood, along with Triplochiton scleroxylon, Obeche, mahogany, and Khaya was processed into timber which was then exported from the Port of Sapele worldwide.
Bilinga (also called Aloma in Germany and Opepe in England) is an African wood, from Nauclea diderrichii trees in the family Rubiaceae. The wood, which grows across tropical Africa from Sierra Leone to Uganda, has about the same density as true hickory, but is not quite as strong. [1] The wood is extremely heavy. [2]
Masks carved of wood represent bush spirits, or spirits that take animal forms. These animal forms may be more naturalistic among the Nunuma and Nuna or more stylized among the Léla and Winiama. The animals that occur most frequently are the antelope, buffalo, bush pig, hornbill, hyena, and the serpent.