Headrests of Southern Africa

Headrests from Southern Africa - The architecture of sleep presents the subject of southern African headrests in a fascinating new light. The book, richly illustrated – often with in situ photographs, offers unique historical and personal information collected from many of the original owners and carvers of the headrests. So, for the first time African headrests are brought to life with detailed information and the stories of their creation, ownership, use and significance.

The 438 headrests from the collections of Bruce Goodall from Cape Town and Frédéric Zimer from Paris are presented according to 3 geographical areas: KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo (where the Ntwane people live) and Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland).

Since 2003, Goodall has made numerous field trips collecting, as well as interviewing and photographing the owners and carvers of headrests. In 2017, Goodall’s collection grew substantially with the purchase of a comprehensive collection of headrests from the Msinga area of KwaZulu-Natal. This collection had been assembled and meticulously documented by the late Anglican priest Clive Newman and his friend and assistant, Mavis Duma, between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s. The Zimer collection has been built up since the 1990s through his many travels in Africa, and his acquisitions from collectors and African art dealers around the world.

This publication not only offers insight into the personal and historical dimensions of this important southern African tradition through the text written about the headrests and their owners by Bruce Goodall, but includes essays by Newman, Nel and Leibhammer and a text about collecting by Duma. Together these facilitate a penetrating understanding of these valued items as well as a respectful appreciation of the cultures and individuals who made and used them.

Bruce Goodall is a collector, researcher, and dealer in southern African art. In the late 1980s he studied Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town. However, it was only 25 years later that his interest in the cultures of Africa was combined with his lifelong penchant for collecting.

Frédéric Zimer was a building construction engineer, working for 20 years in the Telecoms sector in France. He fell in love with Africa thanks to his participation in major projects in French-speaking Africa and his travels to more than 20 African countries. His African art collection has focused on headrests from KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini, Nigeria (Calabar) and Ethiopia. His deep interest in these forms is predicated on the fact that for him these objects of daily life represent the cultural richness of the regions and peoples of Africa.