|
 Kavango iron smelters, using carved wooden bowl-bellows to drive air into the tall clay
smelting furnace. This was necessary to provide sufficient oxygen to burn the charcoal in
the furnace at a temperature above 1200ºC.
|
|
Photograph courtesy of Dr Beatrice Sandelowsky, Director, Rehoboth Museum, Namibia.
Printed from a glass negative produced early this century by the missionary Father A.
Fröhlich O.M.I.
|
Kavango iron smiths forging metal artefacts, using carved wooden bellows to pump air
into a smithing hearth for shaping raw metal into tools. Both smithing and smelting
consumed large quantities of charcoal, sometimes leading to local deforestation in areas
of intensive metal production.
|
|
Photograph courtesy of Dr Beatrice Sandelowsky, Director, Rehoboth Museum, Namibia.
Printed from a glass negative produced early this century by the missionary Father A.
Fröhlich O.M.I.
|
Bellows
- Vernacular name: muande no dikera
- Cultural affiliation: Mpukushu
- Place: Andara, Okavango River, Caprivi, Namibia
- Acquisition: Acquired from Father A. Froehlich, 1936
- Materials: wood, hide, clay
- Use: These carved wooden bellows are typical of the Kavango area and are similar to
those illustrated in the adjacent photographs. The bellows were pumped by moving the
sticks attached to the skin covers up and down vigorously. This pumped air through the
clay funnel into the smelting furnace or smithing hearth. The clay funnel (tuyère)
protected the wooden nozzle of the bellows from the intense heat of the burning charcoal.
tools and ornaments from metal
|
