Skip to main content
Collections Menu
SAM'S collection
Leadership staff
Leadership staff

Leadership staff

Date19th-20th century
Label TextA most beautiful thing In a sales catalogue, this tall staff was described as "an elegant version of a golf club or musical note" from the Makonde People of Tanzania, circa 1850. After seeing it on display in Maine, the Director of the National Gallery of Art, J. Carter Brown, wrote to say, "That Chieftain's Staff is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen!" It is actually used by Makonde diviners-who carry it with them as they walk-to draw sacred patterns in the sand, as part of the divining process.
Object number99.62
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Untold Story, November 14, 2003 - November 14, 2004
Credit LineGeneral Acquisition Fund
Dimensions56 x 3 in. (142.2 x 7.6 cm)
MediumWood
Staff/Spear
Tanzanian
20th century
Object number: 2003.105
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
Luba
Object number: 81.17.874
Staff: (Batume)
Bobo
Object number: 74.29
Ceremonial Chieftain's Staff
New Zealander
ca. 1800
Object number: 54.76
Staff head
Guro, Cote d'Ivoire
Object number: 81.17.258
Staff for Esu (Ogo Elegba)
Nigerian
Object number: 81.17.592
Ceremonial Staff; Female Torso
Chokwe
Object number: 67.109
Authority staff (Orinka Orok)
Maasai
Object number: 2000.10
Dance staff
Native American
ca. 1890
Object number: 96.99