This early Swazi headrest is said to have been acquired from one of the princesses of the Dlamini royal family. Its long and lustrous sleeping platform stretches between two chunky sets of legs and culminates on either side in insouciant upturned ‘tails’. The central boss below the warm, honey-colored sleeping platform represents the umbilicus, the point of connection between offspring and the mother. Years of usage has worn off some of the dark pokerwork on the legs, which is still there on the umbilical lug.

One set of the boldly grooved legs is slightly taller than the other, perhaps suggesting the upper part of a bull’s body. The perky upturn at either end suggests a rudimentary head, a tail, or a penis. These male elements, together with the headrest’s female aspect, represented by the boldly fluted skirt/legs, means that the headrest becomes the perfect symbolic materialization of the social and spiritual union of a man and a woman.

A similar example has been published in The Art of Southern Africa: The Terence Pethica Collection. It was said to have been collected in 1870.