Vessel: Four Men Carrying a Bowl

Place of OriginGuinea-Bissau

Dateabout 1890-1920

DimensionsH. 10 1/2 in. (26.7 cm): W. 28 in. (71.1 cm)

MediumWood

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds given by friends of the Committee for Cultural Diversity: Dr. and Mrs. Bunk Adams, Mrs. Jimmie Bradley, Mrs. Ernestine Butler, Mr. and Mrs. David Carter, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Faulkner, Mrs. Mary Glover and Ms. Karen Glover, Ms. Paula Mayes, Mrs. Marianne Payne, Mr. and Mrs. Tyronne Robertson, Dr. and Mrs. Charles E. Rowan, Nadine Smith, Dr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Sommerville, Lillian Spaulding, Dr. Ardenia Terry, Mr. Clarence Terry, Jr., and the Toledo Chapter of Links; the Ian Williamson Memorial Fund; Jonathan Orser; the Elgin C. Brooks Memorial Fund; family and friends in memory of Malcolm Page Crowther; and funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2002.16

Not on View

DescriptionThe vessel is in the shape of a bowl carried on poles supported on the shoulders of four men, who stand on a rectangular base open in the center, all carved from a single piece of wood. The eyes are inlaid with metal tacks. Some of the areas of the surface have been incised or stained. The convex lid is surmounted by a crocodile. The vessel is in the shape of a bowl carried on poles supported on the shoulders of four men, who stand on a rectangular base open in the center, all carved from a single piece of wood. The eyes are inlaid with metal tacks. Some of the areas of the surface have been incised or stained. The convex lid is surmounted by a crocodile.

Label TextFirst described in the West by a Portuguese explorer in 1456, the Bidyogo people of the Bissagos Islands retain traditional beliefs, independent of the dominant Muslim culture of the Guinea-Bissau mainland. Sculpted from a single chunk of wood, this vessel reflects a festival celebrated by young men called cabaros, who carry huge cauldrons of pork and rice in procession. The men wear braided hair, jewelry, and pouches on shoulder straps. The crocodile on the lid may reflect the festival or guard the contents of the bowl.Comparative ReferencesSee also Bernatzik, Hugo Adolf, Äthiopen des Westens: Forschungreisen in Portugiesisch-Guinea mid einem Beitrag von Berhard Struck, Dresden, Wien, Verlag von L.W. Seidel & Sohn, 1933, fig. 375 (wood cup, with hippopotamus on lid, supported by four women, described by Bernatzik as a jewelry box about 15 years old, from the shrine of Queen Pampa Kanjimpa of the island of Orango Grande, who died in 1929.)

cf. Bernatzik, Hugo Adolf, Im Reich der Bidyogo; Geheimnisvolle Inseln in Westafrika, Leipzig, Koehler & Voigtländer, 1960. cf. Scantamburlo, Luigi, The Ethnology of the Bijagos People of the Island of Bubaque, Guiné-Bissau, M.A. Thesis, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 1978.

cf. Duquette, Danielle Gallios, Dynamique de l'art Bidjogo (Guinée-Bissau); Contribution à une anthropologie de l'art des sociètès africaines, Lisboa, Istuto de Investigação Científica Tropical, 1983, fig. 91 (similar vessel, with lid surmounted by a dog, carried by four men; "Coupe évoqunat l'interrogation du mort et ayant fair partie de trèsor du roi Béhanzin du Dahomey [La coup représentée aved d'autre objets sur un cliché du Musée de l'Homme à Paris]).

cf. König, Viola, ed., Menschen, Meere, Kontinente, Bremen, Übersee-Museum, 1996, p. 121 (similar vessel, with lid surmounted by dog, carried by four men; inv. B12601a/b, acquired 1955 as part of a collection.