Chokwe pot, Angola - Lot 75

Chokwe pot, Angola This vessel was probably designed for tobacco or therapeutic ingredients. Tobacco use was widespread among the Chokwe, and the smoke was an integral part of offerings to ajimu spirits. Soft, slightly satiny patina. Drying curl 36 x 11 cm Peacefully settled in eastern Angola until the 16th century, the Chokwe were then subjected to the Lunda empire, from which they inherited a new hierarchical system and the sacredness of power. Nevertheless, the Chokwé never fully adopted these new social and political contributions. Three centuries later, the Chokwé eventually seized the capital from the Lunda, who had been weakened by internal conflicts, thus contributing to the dismantling of the kingdom. The Chokwé had no centralized power, but rather large chiefdoms. It was these chieftainships that attracted artists eager to place their skills at the exclusive service of the court. The artists created so many varied pieces of such quality that the Lunda court employed only them.