Crescent-Shaped Kuba Tukula Box

Tukula or twool is the product of grinding African sandalwood or Pterocarpus soyauxii powder. The Kuba used tukula both as a dry powder and as a paste mixed with palm oil. Kuba women employed tukula for various tasks: to decorate the face and chest, to anoint bodies for burial and, in combination with other pigments, to dye cloth. Lidded boxes such as these functioned as storage vessels for tukula; the stained red interior is tukula residue. Collected in Kinshasa before 1973 by U.S. ambassador Robert Keating.

12″

Inquire About This Item