Forty-three (43) fortune telling pieces

Forty-three (43) fortune telling pieces
different types of wood, fibers and other materials
Angolan - Tchokwe
20th C.
missing basket where the pieces are usually kept by the fortuneteller, defects, faults, wear, major patina wear
one purchased from Samoroci of Sanzala Muanachina, right side of C.F.B. railway at km.
Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 27 x 27 x 6 cm
Notes: Provenance: Collection of Engineer Elísio Romariz dos Santos Silva, one of the items is the number 220 mentioned in the notebook of the collector «Angola - Arte Negra, Relação e descrição das peças», identified in it as «Figura de Cesto de Adivinho» and described as "Anthropomorphic figure, seated, hands raised to the neck; elbows resting on knees and known(?) as «MU JIMO» [...]. Purchased from Samoroci of Sanzala Muanachina, right side of  C. F. B. railway at km. 1036, near Luena (former Luso) [...], on 12.July.1974." The fortune telling basket was chosen as a typology to be exhibited at the exhibition "Contar Áfricas!" held between November 2018 and April 2019 at Padrão dos Descobrimentos, where it is stated that "The reasons for choosing it are based on the fact that the fortune telling basket is more than a mere utensil or equipment exclusive to the peoples and cultures of southwest Angola. It shows the combination of animal and plant elements that explain the world and the reasons for life, not as symbolic elements, but as ever-present realities. The «object» must be understood here as an unavoidable way of being in life and understanding it [...]" - cf. catalogue of the exhibition "Contar Áfricas!". Lisboa: EGEAC E.M, 2018, p. 48. Other fortune telling baskets are represented in JORDÁN, Manuel. “Chokwe!- Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples”. Munich/London/New York: Prestel-Verlag, 1998, pp. 140, 144 e 168-171 nºs 2, 118-121