posted on 2023-11-30, 18:55authored byJoseph Ekidor Nami
Ewar walks into the Morusipo hill range with colleagues to seek out an elim tree. Having found one, he finds an appropriate branch and cuts it off, commencing the constrution of an ekichielong headrest/stool. After an initial failed attempt, due to a crack in the first piece of wood selected, and with some assistance from a visiting friend, he crafts a second piece into the rough form of an ekichielong, ready to be refined over the days ahead.
Funding
Endangered Material Knowledge Programme
History
Session
C003
Rights owner
Samuel Frederick Derbyshire
Cultural group
Turkana
Participants
Ewar Emeri Kulany
Country
Kenya
Place
Morusipo, Turkana
Item/object
Headrest/stool (ekichielong)
Techniques of production
Cut-chip-cut, Cut-cut
Materials
Wood-persimmon (Diospyros scabra)
Materials alt
Elim
Cultural context/event
Resource collection
Social group setting
Craftspeople working together
Location
Bush
Temporality
The form of ekichielong made by Ewar on this occasion is more or less ubiquitous across Turkana today. In the deeper past, other forms of ekichielong were made, such as those reffered to as emakuk and aporokocho in contemporary times. Neither of these two past forms of headrest/stool are common today.