Oromo Single Armed Chair

One arm only. Whoever sat here was not looking to share the armrest.

This single armed chair is by the Oromo peoples of Ethiopia, late 19th or early 20th century, in painted wood. Carved seats of this kind in Ethiopia generally signaled the standing of an elder or a person of rank, and were cut from heavy timber with joints held by pegs. The back panel is incised with zigzags and four-pointed stars in red, slate and ochre. Below, a dark plank seat sits between stout posts, and the legs end in flared feet like hooves. Thirty-one inches high.

Other chairs have two arms. Few of them have this much to say.