ClassificationsAfrican Art

Hunter's Shirt, Donson Dlokiw

Place CreatedMali, Africa

CultureMalinke

Datelate 19th-early 20th Century

MediumCloth, leather, shells, animal claws, horns

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions35 11/16 x 44 in. (90.7 x 111.8 cm)

Object number1994.004.111

Label TextThe ability to survive in a dangerous environment is what distinguishes hunters among the Mande-speaking peoples. Their shirts bespoke their ability not only to hunt in the earthly realm of the wilderness but also to transform organic matter into extraordinary materials with which to master the supernatural realm. Made of handwoven cloth stained brown with an herbal solution, the hunter's shirt is a surface upon which objects from the wild - canine teeth, raptor claws, antelope horns, and strips of leather - are sewn and transformed into objects that ally the hunter's powers with the strength, cunning, and quickness of dangerous animals who might be his adversaries. So, too, numerous small tooled leather amulets, which hold Koranic verses, were added to the shirt to protect him. Only the wearer knew the meaning of each of the shirt's elements, for they "contain" pieces of the secret personal knowledge he acquired. As the hunter matured and his power (nyama) grew, the components of his shirt augmented to make it more visually intricate and symbolically dynamic, to the point where its appearance approached the Mande concept of dibi, meaning obscurity, ambiguity, and potentially devastating strength.
Exhibition HistoryThe Art of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Michael C. Carlos Museum, November 8, 1997 - January 4, 1998
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 3, September 26, 1998 - Spring 2003
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, July 19, 2003 - Spring 2005
Divine Intervention: African Art and Religion, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 5 - December 4, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, August 6, 2016 - December 16, 2018
Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, November 1, 2020 - March 14, 2021
Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, Spring/Summer 2011.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 92-93.
Philip Brutz, Robin Hanson, Elizabeth Saluk, Kristen Windmuller-Luna, Renee Stein, Bruce Raper. "Remote Mountmaking and Virtual Couriering: A Case Study". 7th International Mountmakers Forum. October 29, 2020. Streamed live: https://youtu.be/-eVlH6lK84E?t=2738
Matthew Rarey, Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic (Durham: Duke University Press, 2023), 81, Figure 2.2.

ProvenanceEx coll. William S. Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia.

Status

Not on view

Collections