Dinka Wood Headrest

Plainly, a dark, lumpy block that has grown legs and a long curl at one end.

This carved wooden headrest is Dinka, from East Africa. It is wood. The Dinka are a Nilotic cattle-herding people of the upper Nile region, and their wooden objects are generally shaped by hand from locally available timber. Placed center frame, a rough, dark brown form with an irregular, bulging top and thick curved legs that spread outward. One end swings into a long hooked foot. The surface is cracked, glossy in patches and clearly handled, with an organic outline. It is 12 inches wide, 7 deep and 5 high.

Shaped like it grew rather than was carved, and quite proud.