Turkana Vintage Wooden Bowl With Repairs. Burled mahogany color wood with cracks. 

Size: 11 x 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 in. 

#2367 . 

The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana County in northwest Kenya, a semi-arid climate region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Uganda to the west, and South Sudan and Ethiopia to the north. With over a million people they are the third largest Nilotic ethnic group in Kenya after the Kalenjin and Luo, with slightly higher numbers than the Maasai. They are mainly semi-nomadic pastoralists, noted for raising camels and the Zebu, as well as weaving baskets. Their history can be traced back at least to the 1600s, by which time the tribe had eradicated most other tribes in the Turkana Basin through superior military tactics and weaponry, possibly picked up through contact with later Ancient Roman forces in the upper Mediterranean prior to the collapse of the Empire. After hundreds of years of peace, they were conquered and confined to the newly deemed Turkana District by the British Empire in 1926. Despite voluntarily enlisting into the King’s African Rifles regiment during World War I and II, proving to be especially effective against Italian and Nazi forces during their respective African campaigns, most Turkana people were forcibly relocated by the British to the Turkana District afterwards. Even after Kenya gained its independence in 1963, the Turkana (along with most other ethnic minorities) continued to face discrimination and difficulty assimilating within their own country.

This particular piece is a classic example of the Turkana bowl, a design virtually unchanged since antiquity. Created from polishing and sanding layers of a burl on an olive or ash tree, no two bowls are alike, crafted painstakingly by hand. A common feature is the single hole drilled into one top side, where a string is attached for easy carrying when the bowl is not full. To prevent seepage and contribute to the smooth seal of the bowl they are conditioned with tobacco juice, amber, and resin made from animal fat and other elements. This bowl is especially fascinating due to the effort taken to restore and maintain it, as evident by the plug in the bottom and the crack on the side. The zig-zag strands that are pushed through the wood are metallic, clearly copper or a similar alloy, and covered in a green patina, which usually takes between three months and 30 years to form,depending on the environment. Given that the area of Turkana is landlocked and extremely arid, this indicates the bowl was used by someone specifically in the area of Lake Turkana, which is the world’s largest permanent desert lake and the world’s largest alkaline lake, putting heavy salt levels into the surrounding atmosphere.

Cracks throughout.