Storage Container

This sturdy storage container, which is believed to be Mossi, has an engaged foot and walls that have been textured using a twisted-fiber roulette. The vessel’s only other embellishment is a meandering band of thick, notched lines that wraps around the shoulder in alternating vertical and horizontal groups.
Tall, cylindrical storage containers are a regular feature in traditional homes of the arid western Sahel and savanna region. Lines 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. [See also 2005.226, 2005.286 and 2005.287].