Bamenda Ceramic Shield, Cameroon

It looks like a giant feather, which is a gentle way to make an argument.

This shield is Bamenda, from Cameroon, Central Africa, and is contemporary, in wood and kaolin. In the Cameroon Grassfields, carved and painted wooden pieces of this kind are often made for display and dance, and white kaolin is generally linked with purity and ancestral favor. The long, narrow form tapers to rounded points at each end and widens slightly at the center. A single raised spine runs from top to bottom, with slanting ribs of white set against black on either side. It is 10.75 inches wide and 46.5 high.

Light as a feather in looks, if not in fact.