Carved wooden stool

Three-legged stools were carved from single blocks of hardwood — a form common across the Bantu highlands. In Gusii homesteads the father's and senior men's stools stood near the hearth or under the eaves, occupied at councils where bridewealth arrangements, land matters and disputes were settled by negotiation.

Bridewealth — chiefly livestock, especially cattle — passed from the groom's family to the bride's over years of instalments, binding the two families together. The stool thus sat literally at the seat of household diplomacy; the photograph shows the domestic setting where such councils met.