Chalk spoon (okwa nzu)

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONAlthough called a spoon, this object lies flat and is used as a dish.WHERE WAS IT MADE?This was made in the southwest of Nigeria.HOW WAS IT MADE?This chalk spoon was hand carved from a piece of wood with hand tools such as an adze, knives, and chisels, and then painted with natural pigments.HOW WAS IT USED?Although this object is called a spoon because its handle suggests this function, it is actually made to lie flat and serves as a dish for chalk. The kola nut and chalk play an important role in Igbo hospitality rituals. These substances encourage better communication between people as well as between people and deities. Igbo people have thus fashioned special containers for kola nuts and chalk. Chalk and its white color are associated with purity, beauty, and sanctity. Pregnant women rub their bellies with chalk and devotees honor gods and ancestors at their altars with offerings of cones of white chalk. In rituals or at other important formal occasions, participants open the event by passing around a lump of chalk that they use to mark the ground or their bodies.WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THIS?Notice the anthropomorphic handle; it is primarily decorative, though some Igbo informants have suggested that it has ancestral associations.