Contemporary Ivory Carving in Malawi

Leonardo, Vol. 5, pp. 247-248. Pergamon Press 1972. Printed in Great Britain CONTEMPORARY IVORY CARVING IN MALAWI Carson I. A. Ritchie* Although there is considerable literature about individual local centres of ivory carving in Mrica, practically all treat the aesthetic side of the art exclusively. In 1971 I went to Malawi to investigate the practical side of carving there, to learn whether it was as much in decline as in Europe and, also, how the approach ofan Mrican carver differed from that of the European carvers whose work I had described previously [1-4]. Malawi presented a special situation. It had stood outside the main tide ofAfrican artistic progress, in ivory carving as well as in the other arts. It had had a very troubled history. Under the expert guidance of Father Philip Elston, a talented amateur archaeologist, I visited the rock shelters near the headwaters of the river Likwenu, where the local people had hidden from the Yao slave raiders. This is not the kind of surroundings that is likely to foster an interest in the arts. Moreover, I had learned at Malosa that, in the past, tribal society had often discouraged preeminence in craftwork. People who were outstanding in these occupations were often regarded as bewitched and were ostracized. Fromthe viewpoint of the researcher, however, a slow artistic development could prove informative. Old ways of doing things might have been retained in Malawi, whereas , in countries where artistic production was at a higher pitch, they have generally been superceded and, hence, lost. I soon discovered in Malawi that there are several quite distinct and unrelated ivory carving techniques . In addition, some of the ivory carvings available were imports from Portuguese East Africa (I was told that these were better than the local ones). I was unable to visit the national craft school at Kota Kota where the best ivory carving can be observed or Lulat's, a prominent ivory shop in Zomba, but I was fortunate to meet Marko Scott, an ivory carver in Blantyre, who learned the art from Jackson Sadig. Scott always began work by drawing the design on the surface of the ivory. The tools he used were saws and files that he bought and re-toothed (I shall discuss this below). He used sandpaper to smooth down his carvings and he *Artist living at 6 Lee Terrace, Blackheath, London, S.E.3, England. (Received 2 November, 1971.) 247 polished them with a brass polish called "Brasso". Like other ivory carvers, Scott worked in ebony as well; this he polished with black boot polish. Ebony is more difficult to carve than ivory. Hippopotamus tusks are sometimes used; these also are harder than elephant ivory. Both elephant and hippo tusks are rather scarce and permits are required to purchase them. Later, I had the opportunity to visit the workshop of Jackson Sadig in Blantyre. Usually there were three carvers at work in his shop, making ebony and ivory carvings for the Curio Shop of Blantyre. They used a bench along one side of the room. The equipment was very modern and in good condition. There were two large vices attached to the bench, carpenter's saws, twist drills, rolls of sandpaper, chisels, hacksaws and a variety of specialized tools. For example, there was a tiny chisel which could be rotated in a twist drill to produce the round depression for the eye socket of animals. The most striking of all the tools, however, were the rasps. These were ordinary wood files, softened in fire, into which new steps were cut to make them much more incisive. Heavy rasps cut in this manner may be seen in a display of an ivory carver's bench at the Dieppe Museum, Dieppe, France. The curator, Pierre Bazin, has painstakingly amassed these tools from descendants of the Dieppe carvers, once the most famous artists in ivory in Europe. Modern carvers in Dieppe, such as Tranquille Colette, probably still use them but they also employ power tools, such as rotary files. The resemblance between a Dieppe carver's tools and those of a modern Malawian carver is striking. English ivory carvers, on the other hand, make comparatively little use of...