Vases & Vessels

These cylindrical containers were carved with great skill from wood. Though simple in design wooden containers required skill to give shape in this symmetrical form. Among the Tutsi or any of the smaller pastoral groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and northern Tanzania wooden containers were used to collect milk, hold honey or carry food. As cattle herders milk and the blood of cattle served as drink for nutrition and ritual purposes for men's societies.

Containers either carved from wood or simple gourds were containers that could be easily capped to keep milk or food. Some containers are undecorated other will have raised designs on the sides or will be engraved with different patterns. Though it is what might be considered to be a craft product, a simple container, it has a sense of design and a kind of utilitarian dignity that makes it a work of art reinforced by the smoothed and softly worn surface.

Available in two sizes. Please note as these are natural products, sizes are variable.