Storage Container

Tall, cylindrical storage containers are a regular feature in traditional homes of the arid western Sahel and savanna region. Lined up in rows in the kitchen, they hold the life-sustaining grains–primarily millet, sorghum, and, more recently, corn–that are grown in the short rainy season that lasts from June until September. They also safeguard other dry goods such as peanuts or okra, as well as personal valuables, from clothing and jewelry to money. Such vessels are a visual and conceptual extension of the larger, stationary granaries that are prominent features of the built environment. Both are strongly associated with sustenance, fecundity, and fertility.

This storage container comes from central and northern Burkina Faso, a region that saw the founding of the powerful Mossi States in the fifteenth century. At that time, the invasion of horsemen from northern Ghana changed the political and cultural make up of the area in significant ways. The local populations of Kurumba, Dogon, and Gurmantche were overpowered by their attackers but were not completely subsumed by them; today they continue to possess a sense of ownership over the land and maintain a unique sense of identity on many levels.

This Kurumba storage container stands on three squat legs. It is etched from neck to feet with a freehand pattern of bands and triangles that are filled in with hatching and cross-hatching. A related Kurumba example possesses bands of patterning that are impressed in a more regular and compartmentalized fashion. Similar inscribed patterns are also found on a jar from an ancient burial mound at Kouga in Mali.