Collection record · Objects & craft
Sandals (mitalawanda / mitawanda) or Clogs (kiatu cha mti)
The collection record classifies this work as garment. It is dated c. 1800s. Recorded culture or place: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver.
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Sandals (mitalawanda / mitawanda) or Clogs (kiatu cha mti)
- Date
- c. 1800s
- Culture / origin
- Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver
- Materials and technique
- Wood and glass beads
- Dimensions
- Overall: 6 x 10.2 cm (2 3/8 x 4 in.); Part 2: 4.5 x 12.4 cm (1 3/4 x 4 7/8 in.); Part 3: 6 x 9.5 cm (2 3/8 x 3 3/4 in.); Part 4: 3.2 x 12.1 cm (1 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1929.566
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
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.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Educational Purchase Fund · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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