BARI, SOUTH SUDAN

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Personal headrests are a widespread tradition across the African continent. They support the head during sleep, cradling it along the jawline, elevating it from the ground and aligning the spine. At the same time, headrests prevent fragile and time-intensive coiffures – important emblems of social status, age, and gender – from being dirtied or damaged. While some cultures in sub-Saharan Africa associate headrests with dreaming and spiritual communication, in eastern Africa they are strictly utilitarian items.

The oldest preserved headrests in Africa were found in Egypt and have been dated to the second and third dynasties of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2649–2150 bc). Influences of some of the ancient Egyptian headrest forms, such as the solid block design, can be seen in east African examples created thousands of years later. Similarities in comparatively recent designs are shared between groups in the neighboring countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda. Headrests were once used widely among the pastoralist groups of this region, but the tradition has largely disappeared with the decline of pastoralist lifestyles.

This smooth, lustrous Bari rest from South Sudan forgoes surface detail in favor of pure form. Carved from a single, unembellished piece of wood, it has two flexed legs that curve down from either end of a rectangular central platform. Twisted leather thongs bind the legs and connect to the underside of the rest in four columns, holding the structure firm and allowing convenient points for grasping or attachment.