Makonde Museum

Figurative sculpture

Makonde sculptures include figurative sculptures and artworks with themes such as farming life and child-rearing. The Makonde people are said to have originated in Nigeria or Cameroon, and are an agricultural people who passed through Congo and Zambia before settling on the Makonde Plateau. These sculptures realistically depict their farming lifestyle, tilling the earth, carrying harvested pumpkins on their heads, and raising children.

Humorous man holding a tree

By Hendlen
The museum's first commemorative purchase

Woman holding a banana bunch as a walking stick and a water turtle

By Fidelis

A man tries to stop his wife from running away from home

By Thomas Valentino

Young mother holding her child

By Nakadenbo

Man acrobatically holds water bucket with both feet

By Saidi Abdala

Bust of a bearded man

By Thomas Mtundu

Semi-figurative and abstract sculpture

Using curves resembling the intricate intricacy of a Möbius strip, he perfectly abstracts it to the point of feeling like the future, or freely creates semi-concrete and abstracted human and animal body parts (ears, eyes, breasts, rows of teeth, hands, feet), carving out a stunning world of form.