Eastern Africa

Figure, late 19th century

Sudan; Bongo peoples Wood

The sculpture is a tall polelike figure represented in human form, the Bongo people of Sudan use these wooden sculptures to put around in a cemetery to show who the main people were in their society. This example is of a male who has tensed knees and normally have the arms close to their body. If you look closely the modeling of the body and the face have been put through a delicate handling which was done on purpose to give the art work an ordinary appeal.  The eyes of the sculpture was said to have beads in them but fallen off over time, leaving empty spaces. The arms are no longer there, but they also have holes which show us that something was there before. The sculpture was once a tree trunk of mahogany that was carved into a human form.  The toughness of mahogany is so strong that it shields it from tearing apart. In Sudan the sculpture has endure smoothed and grazed by the hefty rains that come down in the grassland.

Bongo people had a mutual custom which was to admire the huntsmen and fighters by creating these wooden statues and putting them on their burial place. In the Bongo community a male was able to achieve respect and status by hunting down animals or killing in the time of battle. The figurine was put up by the living family members after they had some sort of ritual. The wooden shrine indorses the class and entitlement that was reached from when they are alive, which is supposed to guarantee he would stay at that position in the afterlife as well.  

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_1973.264.jpg