African Shields Graphic Art of the Black Continent

Masai Shield, Kenya/Tanzania

Wood, cowhide, organic pigments
height 39 three/8in (100cm)

Jean Paul Barbier notes, "The Maasai chosen their shield designs sirata and attached descriptive design names distinguishing 1 age group from another. Although many of these markings have been lost through disuse, some examples take survived or are at least known to us today [and are represented in the present example]: [ . . . ] sirata ol ebor indicates the white space in the center of a shield and the bare space in a corral; [ . . . ] sirata el engameta represents the chevron dewdrop design on the belt of a young single girl. The painting of a sirata el langarbwali, a red patch or blossom-like motif on the side of a shield, marked bravery in boxing and was painted merely with the permission of the caput laigwanan. (Benitez-Johannot, Purissima and Jean Paul Barbier, Shields: Africa, Southeast Asia and Oceania, Prestel, 2000, p. 118)

This stunningly graphic shield was probably owned by a warrior herder as younger warriors were only permitted to have blackness, white or gray pigments to decorate their shields. The scarlet pigment was traditionally accomplished by mixing earth in claret or the sap of a fruit, white from clay and blackness from burnt gourd peel. (Ibid.)

Cf. (Ibid.) fig. 42 (BMG 1027-117)

Cf. Plaschke, Dieter and Manfred A. Zirngibl, African Shields - Graphic Art of the Black Continent, Panterra - Verlag, Munich, 1992, figs xviii-21

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