African Arts Gallery

Inspired by Portuguese Baroque, this chokwe tobacco pot offers a baluster foot made up of layered elements. It is crafted from checkered alveoli lined with volutes. These regal sculptures travelled with the court and were sometimes offered to other chefs. Tobacco use was indeed widespread among the Chokwe, and smoke was an integral part of offerings to the spirits ajimu. Use patina, cracks and abrasions of pigments.

Paisiblely settled in eastern Angola until the 16th century, the Chokwé were then subjected to the Lunda empire from which they inherited a new hierarchical system and the sanctity of power. Nevertheless, the Chokwé never fully embraced these new social and political contributions. Three centuries later, they eventually seized the capital of the Lunda, weakened by internal conflicts, thus contributing to the dismantling of the kingdom. The Chokwé had no centralized power but great chiefdoms. They were the ones who attracted artists who wanted to put their know-how at the exclusive service of the court. The artists created so many varied pieces of such quality that the lunda court employed only them.