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Source 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 (<em>msuruaki</em>). 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 <em>mitalawanda </em>to Central Africa; stylistic elements of this pair hail from that region.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
111081
label
Sandal (mtalawanda / mtawanda) or Clog (kiatu cha mti)
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
111081
contentType
object
title
Sandal (mtalawanda / mtawanda) or Clog (kiatu cha mti)
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 (<em>msuruaki</em>). 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 <em>mitalawanda </em>to Central Africa; stylistic elements of this pair hail from that region.
date
c 1800s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q80003256
genreSpecific
Wood
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 29.2 x 9 x 6.1 cm (11 1/2 x 3 9/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
cul
Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver
accession
1929.566.2
Source extras
tec
Wood and glass beads
tombstone
Sandal (mtalawanda / mtawanda) or Clog (kiatu cha mti), c 1800s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver. Wood and glass beads; overall: 29.2 x 9 x 6.1 cm (11 1/2 x 3 9/16 x 2 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Educational Purchase Fund, 1929.566.2
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
This distinctive footwear traveled 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 (<em>paduka</em>) in an eighteenth-century Indian miniature painting (2003.344).
creditline
Educational Purchase Fund
sketchfabId
18a820fcb28d46168698a1e3d000d516
updatedAt
2026-06-18 21:17:28.076000
sourceId
111081
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood and glass beads
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
922208d71117ca65