Zande barkcloth beater
Accession Number:
1934.8.125 .1 1934.8.125 .2
Country:
?Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan?] Western Equatoria Dingba
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Animal Ivory Tooth , Wood Plant , Plant Fibre
Process:
Carved , Split , Twisted , Bound , Tied , Wedged
Dimensions:
Handle L = 378, diam = 26.8 by 25.8; cord diam = 5 mm; beater head L = 200, diam broad end = 41.2 by 36 mm, diam beater end = 26.5 by 21 mm [RTS 7/3/2005].
Weight:
357.6 g
Local Name:
wata
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater) on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition, along the road to Tambura [RTS 29/7/2005].
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
29th April 1933
Description:
Barkcloth beater consisting of an ivory head [.1] hafted onto a wooden handle [.2].
The head has been carved from a single tusk that is oval in section and currently a yellowish cream colour (Pantone 7507C).
This has been largely hollowed out, and curves slightly from the broader top end to its solid, flat-cut base.
The body is slightly ridged longitudinally at the upper end; a number of tool marks are visible near the lower end where the sides of the beater have been shaved.
The base has been covered with incised crosshatching, except for an oval depression at the centre.
The edges are slightly damaged around the working end, and the open end is split and has begun to laminate.
The head has been loosely hafted onto a handle, carved from a single piece of brown wood (approximately Pantone 7508C) that has been cut roughly flat across the top, but only torn across the bottom leaving the internal fibres of the wood sticking out and exposed.
The handle was split down the length from its top end, but unevenly, partially separating a narrow sliver of wood that has been pulled out to one side to create a forked top.
The head was then placed halfway down this fork, at right angles to it, and bound in place using a length of 2 ply twisted plant fibre.
This has a very fibrous, stringy consistency, and looks to be manufactured from strips of reddish brown bark (Pantone 4695C) which are fraying at the ends.
The binding is not very tight, and 2 wedges of wood have been forced into the binding below the beater head to tighten it; these have similar colouring and texture to the handle and were probably made from the same source material.
The handle is complete and looks very new, but has a couple of cut marks in its lower part and what may be scorch marks in patches across the surface.
It looks very makeshift and may never have been used in this form.
The collector's original list described the object as having no handle, which is usual for this type (see 1931.66.15, which is said to have been hand held).
It seems likely that the handle was added later, either for Powell-Cotton or the museum to illustrate how the object could be used, in this case, erroneously.
It has a weight of 357.6 grams.
The beater head is 200 mm long, and measures 41.2 by 36 mm across its broad end, and 26.5 by 21 mm across its narrow, working surface.
The handle is 378 mm long, 26.8 mm wide and 25.8 mm thick at its central point; the fibre cord has a diameter of 5 mm.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater) on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition, along the Road to Tambura.
Powell-cotton gives the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata , a term also mentioned by Larken, who describes the manufacture of Zande barkcloth as follows: "During the rains, about July, two horizontal cuts are made round the stem four or five feet apart, a perpendicular one joining them. The bark is loosened and removed in a single piece. The outer skin is scraped away with a knife, and the dark brown fibrous remainder beaten on a log with a wata. This is usually the point of a small tusk about a foot long. The pointed end is used as a handle, the other, of which the face has been scored with a series of closely-crossing lines to a depth of about the tenth of an inch, as a stamp, the bark, lying on the log, being punched all over with it. The process is gradual, and not too much force may be employed. The fibres become spread out and the thickness of the substance reduced, though somewhat unevenly so. The resulting cloth when dry is of a light reddish brown colour, harsh in texture, and bearing throughout its not very long life the marks of the corrugations on the face of the wata " (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 34-35). Brock also described the process: 'the latter [barkcloth] is prepared with oil and beaten out with a piece of ivory cut off the end of an elephant's tusk, the end where it is cut off being grooved in a criss-cross fashion which makes a pattern on the cloth' (R.G.C. Brock, "Some Notes on the Zande Tribe as Found in the Meridi District", Sudan Notes and News 1, 1918, 254).
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater) on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition, along the Road to Tambura.
Powell-cotton gives the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata , a term also mentioned by Larken, who describes the manufacture of Zande barkcloth as follows: "During the rains, about July, two horizontal cuts are made round the stem four or five feet apart, a perpendicular one joining them. The bark is loosened and removed in a single piece. The outer skin is scraped away with a knife, and the dark brown fibrous remainder beaten on a log with a wata. This is usually the point of a small tusk about a foot long. The pointed end is used as a handle, the other, of which the face has been scored with a series of closely-crossing lines to a depth of about the tenth of an inch, as a stamp, the bark, lying on the log, being punched all over with it. The process is gradual, and not too much force may be employed. The fibres become spread out and the thickness of the substance reduced, though somewhat unevenly so. The resulting cloth when dry is of a light reddish brown colour, harsh in texture, and bearing throughout its not very long life the marks of the corrugations on the face of the wata " (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 34-35). Brock also described the process: 'the latter [barkcloth] is prepared with oil and beaten out with a piece of ivory cut off the end of an elephant's tusk, the end where it is cut off being grooved in a criss-cross fashion which makes a pattern on the cloth' (R.G.C. Brock, "Some Notes on the Zande Tribe as Found in the Meridi District", Sudan Notes and News 1, 1918, 254).
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p.
260] - From the
ZANDE
tribe, LIRANGO, YAMBIO, DINGBA & TAMBURA [...] [insert] 125 [end insert] -
Wata
, bark-cloth mallet made from a small tusk, with very small striking surface, hafted in forked stick (split), DINGBA (981).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 2/2/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 981: “Ivory (old) bark cloth mallet, no handle, native name Wata, 29/4/33 Dingba, about 5.15 N 27.45 E”. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Written on object - Wata . Bark-cloth mallet ZANDE, DINGBA 5° 15' N., 27° 45' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (981) [ink, on handle] 981 [ink, on handle] 981 D [pencil, on beater head] [RTS 7/3/2005].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan, Dingba (5° 15' N, 27° 45' E), Zande tribe. Ivory barkcloth beater, wata , hafted into wooden handle. Coll. P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, 29th April 1933. 981. 1934.8.125.1-2 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 21/3/2005].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 2/2/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 981: “Ivory (old) bark cloth mallet, no handle, native name Wata, 29/4/33 Dingba, about 5.15 N 27.45 E”. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Written on object - Wata . Bark-cloth mallet ZANDE, DINGBA 5° 15' N., 27° 45' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (981) [ink, on handle] 981 [ink, on handle] 981 D [pencil, on beater head] [RTS 7/3/2005].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan, Dingba (5° 15' N, 27° 45' E), Zande tribe. Ivory barkcloth beater, wata , hafted into wooden handle. Coll. P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, 29th April 1933. 981. 1934.8.125.1-2 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 21/3/2005].
