id: 111080 accession number: 1929.566.1.b share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.566.1.b updated: 2022-01-04 15:08:55.376000 Peg (msuruaki) for a Sandal (mtalawanda / mtawanda) or Clog (kiatu cha mti), c 1800s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver. Wood and glass beads; overall: 12.5 x 4.5 cm (4 15/16 x 1 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Educational Purchase Fund 1929.566.1.b title: Peg (msuruaki) for a Sandal (mtalawanda / mtawanda) or Clog (kiatu cha mti) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c 1800s creation date earliest: 1800 creation date latest: 1900 current location: 108A Sub-Saharan creditline: Educational Purchase Fund copyright: --- culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver technique: Wood and glass beads department: African Art collection: African Art type: Garment find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 12.5 x 4.5 cm (4 15/16 x 1 3/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Arts of Africa: Gallery Rotation (African art rotation) opening date: 2021-12-10T05:00:00 Arts of Africa: Gallery Rotation (African art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 10, 2021-December 18, 2022). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Purchased from The Old Oak Antique Shop. Worcester, England. date: ?-1929 footnotes: * Original object card, curatorial file. citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1929- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This distinctive footwear traveled from from Southeast Asia and the Middle East to Africa, first to the Swahili Coast and then further inland to parts of Central Africa. The deity Krishna wears similar shoes (paduka) in an eighteenth-century Indian miniature painting (2003.344). digital description: wall description: Common in the Indian Ocean region, wooden sandals changed meaning across place and time. This pair’s base elevates the foot as the toes grip an antelope-shaped peg (msuruaki). Crisp geometric sole designs suggest they were rarely worn. East African elites and merchants once had exclusive rights to wooden shoes, wearing elaborate ones only for portraits. Formerly enslaved people living along the coast wore simpler ones from the 1840s onward, adopting elite footwear to assert their liberation. However, slave traders like the Zanzibari “Tippu Tip” (c. 1832–1905) likely brought mitalawanda to Central Africa; stylistic elements of this pair hail from that region. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.566.1.b/1929.566.1.b_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.566.1.b/1929.566.1.b_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.566.1.b/1929.566.1.b_full.tif