Figural Container

Late 19th-early 20th century

Zigua or Mbugu
Usambara Mountains region, Tanzania
Eastern and Southern Africa

Hollowed for use as a vessel, this sculpture was created for divination practices and doubles as a medicine container. The carved head is a removable stopper of the type used throughout eastern Africa to dispense ritual substances. Such sculptural forms are often customized to reflect an individual purpose. The frame-like
lines around the eyes on this object could represent the [i]saif malik[/i] mask worn by women from Oman, so it may have been intended to counteract dangers related to regional slave traders from the Arabian Peninsula.

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Zigua
Title: Figural Container
Place: Tanzania (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1875–1925
Medium: Wood, leather, and sacrificial material
Dimensions: H.: 52.1 cm (20 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection and Edward Johnson funds
Reference Number: 2007.347

Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “Figural Medicine Container,” Notable Acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 34, 1 (2008), pp. 12-13, (ill.).
Richard F. Townsend and Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “The Art Institute of Chicago New Galleries,” in Tribal Arts, XVI-1/62 (Winter 2011), pp. 66 (ill.).
Barbara Thompson, “Transformation in the Sacred Arts of Healing in Northeastern Tanzania,” in
Shangaa: Art of Tanzania, exh. cat., Gary van Wyk, ed., (Queens Community College Art Gallery Press, 2013), pp. 160-161, fig 5.1 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 70, pp. 176-177 (ill.).

James Stephenson, James Stephenson African Art, Tanzania and Brooklyn, N.Y., from around 2004 [according to personal communication with J. Stephenson dated Dec. 9, 2013, in curatorial file]; sold to Axis Gallery, West Orange, N.J. and New York, N.Y.; sold to the Art Institute, 2007.

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