Headrests with ‘wheel’ motifs occur fairly frequently but are carved in a variety of styles that don’t always appear to be closely related to each other. Early Northern Nguni examples in the Johannesburg Art Gallery collection have circular forms in abstract compositions that bear no resemblance to wheeled forms of transport. The concept of the wheel and the desire to travel may have come to be associated with these circular forms, an idea which is confirmed by the name for the grooved parallel lines that decorate the outer sides of the wheels of this headrest. Similar parallel grooved decorations on the legs of several headrests from the Msinga region are called ndlela ziyegoli which means ‘on the way/road to Johannesburg.’ The addition of the crossbar that runs from the center of one wheel to the other, reinforces the analogy of a train as it suggests the piston that drives the wheels of the engine forward. The much-used sleeping platform of the headrest extends beyond the wheel ‘bogie’ and its oval ends have the same vertical striations as was seen on No. 24.

During the second half of the 19th century and well into the 20th, steam trains played an important role in transporting migrant workers from rural areas to mines and city centres for work and back. Karel Nel is of the view that the steam engines crossing the landscape at speed must have made an indelible impression on rural communities, and perhaps came to be identified as an immense power object in the ‘new’ world, much as the bull was in the old world.