Gurage Mukecha or Coffee Grinding Vessel

Dark squat block and a bent, leaning stick that never left.

This mukecha or coffee grinding vessel is Gurage, from Ethiopia, East Africa, and dates to the 19th century. It is wood. The Gurage are a people of south-central Ethiopia, known for farming and for the cultivation of enset, a plant sometimes called the false banana. Chunky dark brown cylinder with a deep round hole and a ridged base ring, holding a long, crooked, tapering stick that leans out at an angle. The surface is smooth and dense with a soft sheen. It is 6.75 inches high and 8 in diameter.

Short, dark, and permanently paired with its stick.