Embossed and Incised Leather Shield
Sidamo / Shoa / Oromo, Ethiopia
Hippopotamus hide, leather
Early 20th century

This shield was used in battle and in ceremony by a number of cultures throughout central and southern Ethiopia including the Oromo, Sidamo, and Shoa. Special craftsmen known as chawa in Oromo, awada in Hadiya and Kambata, and faki in Amharic manufactured shields. In former times, the Arussi obtained the raw material for their shields through their outcast hunter and potter caste (the wata or awata), who subsisted mainly on hunting hippopotamus (Barbier, Boyer, Benitez-Johannot, Shields: Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, 2000). 

23.5 in :: 60 cm

InventoryID #13-1867

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