A Kwere / Zaramo staff mkomolo

A Kwere / Zaramo staff mkomolo
Tanzania
with two female figures, having inset bead eyes, on block and notched supports, to a protruding platform with another smaller standing figure and a hook, the shaft with a tapered base,
128cm high.

Provenance
Lucien Van de Velde, Antwerp, Belgium.
Campo, Antwerp, Belgium, 23 October 1991, lot 156.
Tom Phillips Collection, London

Exhibited and Published
Africa, The Art of a Continent, edited by Tom Phillips, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Oct 1995 - Jan 1996, pp152- 153, no. 2.37.

AHDRC No. ao-0119975-001.

Possibly used in spirit possession ceremonies and called mkomolo, 'tree of recovery.' They stood in the ground, where they would be used by the afflicted person to lean back against. Gourds containing efficacious ritual substances would be hung from the hook. The ceremony takes the form of a feast in honour of the affecting spirit, which is called to participate and which rises into the heads of the patient and healer. The healer becomes possessed and is able to identify the ancestor and divine the spirits wishes.