Made of a fragrant wood, this headrest is extremely large and heavy, its proportions suggesting that it may also have served as a stool for a man to sit on. The convex sleeping platform ends on both sides with three rows of amasumpa, the famous geometric pyramidal design. The four rectangular legs are also covered with a grid of finely carved amasumpa. The warm, soft feel of the used surfaces attest to its having been used for many years, a prized personal object, while below, the wood retains a certain roughness.

While no firm provenance exists for where this headrest was collected, it is of the classic Nongoma style, one usually associated with the 19th century Zulu Kingdom. After the fall of the kingdom in 1879, the polity lost control of the use and spread of the symbolic language that had been exclusive to its court. Furthermore, during the upheavals of the 19th century, many people fled the kingdom and perhaps replicated this design wishing to retain a connection with the state or a previous king. Headrests with the decorative amasumpa design have thus been found outside of the Zulu heartland and may well have been later creations by people related to the royal court and/or those with such aspirations.