Maasai jewellery, fascinating and colourful
You'll see them everywhere: bracelets, necklaces, earrings, beads of all colors... If the immense Maasai necklaces(iruvusi) and bracelets(emeirinai) have an aesthetic, social and ritual function, signifying the age class, status and even mood of those who wear them, their appeal to tourists is great, which has led to the development of a solidarity-based craft industry around these jewels. Much rarer among Maasai ritual objects are the ostrich feather ornaments of the moran (warriors) and Maasai weapons (spears that can be dismantled into three parts), machetes, puzzles and buffalo skin shields. Objects that are truly specific to this region of Africa. The Sonjo and Ndorobo ethnic groups also make beautiful bows.
A wide range of wooden objects
Among the souvenirs to bring back are small wooden stools or chairs, which mark the social status of their users and are found in many East African tribes. They are very simple for the women, elaborate for the chiefs. Smaller and more playful is bao, the Swahili equivalent of awale in West Africa. Dating back to the dawn of time and consisting of a 2 x 6-square board, often foldable into 2, and 48 seeds, bao consists in taking all your opponent's seeds. There are also a number of objects made from the wood of coconuts grown on the Swahili coast, including useful or decorative objects, kitchen utensils and beautifully decorated bowls...
Masks, rare ritual objects
The famous masks can be found everywhere on souvenir stalls. Unfortunately, ritual masks are no longer made by any tribe. But you can still find some very beautiful and expressive ones, dating back over fifty years, in genuine antique stores, mainly from central and southern Tanzania, in particular from the Iringa and Tabora regions. Most of these masks were dance masks. Among the genuine antiques are the Makonde masks, or rather helmets, from southern Tanzania, known as mapiko, which have become extremely expensive. Still among the Makonde, we find labrets (or ndona), trays made of wood for men and metal or ivory for women, which are wedged inside the upper lip, incised then widened, and whose role is decorative.
Paintings, pottery and basketry on every corner
There are paintings, particularly in the tinga tinga style, a naive art form specific to the Makonde ethnic group (on the Mozambique border), who originally drew on the walls of their huts. And a whole host of other objects, depending above all on your personal affinities.
Pottery has always been a well-mastered technique in this part of Africa. The ethnic groups in the south-west of the country (particularly the Kisis, in the Lake Nyasa region) produce some very fine pieces. Some craftsmen are skilled in working soapstone, or steatite, a type of pastel-colored limestone, finely worked and polished into small decorative or utilitarian objects.
The Bantus, particularly the Rangis of Kondoa, are excellent basket-makers, using papyrus reeds to create baskets of all sizes, trivets, mats and more.
