I usually post modern South African artists, but today I'd like to show you something more traditional.
This a piece I bought on one of our road trips, in this case we were heading to east coast of South Africa to Kwa-Zulu Natal more specifically Lake St Lucia.
We stopped on the way at one of the curio shops, they have a lot of Ngwenya Glass studio work as the studio is in the area https://ngwenyaglass.co.sz/catalogue Besides the glass the usual craft work in the form of wood carving, cermics and bead work.
Half hidden in the corner, this caught my eye. It seemed out of place, not the usual craft piece, it seemed older and a different style.
The animal representation looks like either a Hadedah https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hadedah
or Sacred Ibis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_sacred_ibis
Both birds are commonly found in South Africa and the hadedah being the most common of the two.
The wooden sculpture stands 120cm high and 50cm wide with faded red fabric and pewter work overlay.
It reminded me of the Egyptian god, Thoth.
I started imagining a tribe from Northern Africa traveling south bringing with them stories of the gods of the North.
Being an older work there is no mark or signature of the artist and who knows where it actually came from, but I love it.
Africa has a rich artistic culture, animal motives, story telling.
As there is no way of knowing who the artist is I can't give credit to anyone.
Photo taken by me with cell phone.