Makonde Chess Set from East Africa African Blackwood and Blond hardwood 20th century CE

Makonde chess sets are made by the Makonde tribe of south-west

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

who have for centuries been greatly skilled in wood carving and Makonde art is a distinctive style.

Chess set A chess set consists of a chessboard and White and Black in chess, white and black chess pieces for playing chess. There are sixteen pieces of each color: one King (chess), king, one Queen (chess), queen, two Rook (chess), rooks, two Bishop (chess ...

s were originally made for export to Europe but the pattern of the pieces follows traditional Makonde designs rather than any established chess pattern.

History

The European market for Makonde art developed from the 1930s through Portuguese colonization. Chess sets were first exported by Norman Kirk, a New Zealander who owned a lime and cashew nut plantation in Tanzania (then Tanganyika). Kirk had been impressed by the work of the Makonde artist Likenikeni Sabini after visiting his workshop at Ndanda mission in the 1950s. After this visit he began buying and exporting Makonde art to Europe. Kirk enticed Sabini to come and work for him at his plantation where Sabini trained other carvers for Kirk. At some point Kirk initiated production of chess sets and the product became popular in the 1960s. The pieces in the chess set were based on the ''chidiu'', a traditional bottle stopper. This took the form of a human head with Makonde facial

scarification Scarification involves scratching, etching, burning/branding, or superficially cutting designs, pictures, or words into the skin as a permanent body modification or body art. The body modification can take roughly 6–12 months to heal. In the ...

. After Kirk's death in 1969 a group of carvers who had formerly supplied Kirk continued to carve chess sets. This group was centred on the village of Ziwani near

Mtwara Mtwara ( Portuguese: ''Montewara'') is the capital city of Mtwara Region in southeastern Tanzania. In the 1940s, it was planned and constructed as the export facility for the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme, but was somewhat neglected whe ...

. Several new themes were developed by this group including the ''seated smoker'' set, the ''drummer'' set, and the ''bird'' set. Scarification marks tend to be omitted on modern pieces.Kingdon, pp. 74-75

Description

The king (''bulisa''), as the tallest piece, has a very tall African tribal hat worn by tribal chiefs. Alternatively, the hat may be a

fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

of the type formerly worn by colonial police and soldiers. The king always has this hat even in sets which do not take human form. The queen, as representative of women (''nkongwe''), carries a water pot on her head which is the custom in rural Africa. The knight is in the style of a giraffe (''twiga''); horses were unknown to the tribe as they cannot survive in this part of Africa because of the

tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies), are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Glos ...

. Among the best of Makonde skills are carvings of animals. As there were no castles in Makonde territory, they designed the rook in the shape of a grain store representative of the importance of a good grain harvest, or sometimes as a tribal hut (''ng'ande''Kingdon, p. 75). Both of these represented security. The bishop (''chikopa'') has a traditional bishop's

mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...

headgear (possibly due to European influence) but without the facial scarification of the other characters. In some carvings the bishop appears as a

witch doctor A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing ...

(native to 19th century east African culture). The pawn is carved in the style of an ordinary Makonde tribesman. Makonde chess sets are usually carved from

african blackwood ''Dalbergia melanoxylon'' (African blackwood, grenadilla, or mpingo) is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to seasonally dry regions of Africa from Senegal east to Eritrea and south to the north-eastern parts of South Africa. The ...

, known as ''mpingo'' (the black pieces) and a kind of

rosewood Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. True rosewoods All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated ...

(the white pieces). Chess sets of this style are still carved in Tanzania and Mozambique.

References

Bibliography

*Zachary Kingdon, ''A Host of Devils: The History and Context of the Making of Makonde Spirit Sculpture'', Routledge, 2013 .

History

Description

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading