250255 - African Funerary Post from Sara people - Chad.

Old African Funerary Post from the Sara people found in the city Maro in Chad.

Dimensions: Height: 89 cm. Depth: 14 cm and Width: 15 cm
Weight: 3 kilo's.

This Sara Funerary Post is dated in the first half of the 20th century and comes with a certificate of Authenticity.

This Funerary post was collected by an Italian collector from the Karamojong Tribal art museum in Italy.

Overall condition: the statue shows deep erosion due to many years of wind, strong sun, rain, white ants.The Wood(mahogany) is very hard, solid and heavy. The bottom part (originally inserted in the ground) has been partly eroded by humidity, worms, white ants and insects in general. Minor cracks are located all over the surface, as well as many signs of erosion, but the statue is entire and well preserved and looks amazing. General wear is evident.

This is a very rare piece, of inestimable value, not easy to find of this age, and not easy to find of this beauty.

The Sara people, sometimes referred to as the Kaba or Sara-Kaba, are a Central Sudanic ethnic group native to southern Chad, the northwestern areas of the Central African Republic, and the southern border of South Sudan. They speak the Sara languages which are a part of the Central Sudanic language family. They are also the largest ethnic group in Chad.

Sara oral histories add further details about the people. In summary, the Sara are mostly animists (veneration of nature), with a social order made up of several patrilineal clans formerly united into a single polity with a national language, national identity, and national religion. Many Sara people have retained their ethnic religion, but some have converted to Christianity and Islam.

The Sara (Kameeni) are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Chad, concentrated in the Moyen-Chari, the Logone Oriental, the Logone Occidental, and parts of the Tandjile regions. After their arrival, they continued to be the target of violent raids by northern Fulani and Arab people.
The local Muslim groups of what is now Chad, referred to the Sara as "Kirdi", with the term "Kirdi" denoting a non-Muslim person. The Muslim raiders of what is now Chad were autonomously called "Bagirmi", and this geo-political conflict between the Kirdi and the Bagirmi continued through the nineteenth century.