Tobacco was a product of the Americas, introduced into Africa by Europeans. The oldest known tobacco pipes in southern Ghana are dated to the mid-17th century and are made of ceramic in a European one-piece bowl and stem form. Later a local two-piece form developed that enabled a man to sit at rest with the pipe reaching to the ground. This example would have had a separate, very long wood or reed stem. Its rectangular base steadied the pipe as it rested on the ground. It is in the form of a hornbill, taking the pose of the sankofa bird of Asante proverbs. It refers to the wisdom of looking back to discover how to go forward.
Description:
Ceramic pipe bowl in the form of a hornbill bird looking backwards (sankofa bird pose).
Provenance:
Michael Graham-Stewart, London, -- to 1989
Exhibition History:
Artful Animals, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., July 1, 2009-July 25, 2010
Art of the Personal Object, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 24, 1991-April 9, 2007
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