This item is a beautiful hand–carved sculpture of a village man from Kenya, East Africa carrying a bundle of wood. Unlike in America, where we buy our firewood all cut up for us, the African goes to the “mwito” (forest) to get his ‘kuni” (firewood). This carving also shows the village man carrying a “shoka” (axe) that he used to cut the wood. The craftsman created this beautiful piece of folk art, using only simple hand tools of small axes, various-sized knives, files and sandpaper. A unique feature to this piece is that the carver even engraved his name on the bottom. We have personally selected this piece for its beautiful carved lines, realistically portrayed. The carving was done by one of the world-famous masters of wood: the Makonde Tribe of southern Tanzania, using only simple hand tools of axes, various-sized knives and sandpaper. The Makonde craftsman carved this figure from a single piece of teak wood, which is an exceptionally hard and richly dark wood found in the borderland strip along the tropical areas in certain sections of Central Africa. Teak’s exceptional density makes it both heavy and beautiful in its brown, glossy sheen when polished. This item is 10 inches tall and 6 1/2 inches wide. |