Chokwe people

The Chokwe (Kioko, Cokwe) people Angola, the southwest Congo and northwest Zambia, farming, hunting and fishing by the two seasons: rains from October to April, dry months after. Breaking from Lunda overlordship, Chokwe chiefs built a 19th-century trading power on wax, ivory and rubber, and an art empire of thrones, sceptres and the great Cihongo spirit masks and Mwana Pwo maiden masks that taught womanhood. Chokwe diviners read the future in baskets of carved omens; Chokwe carvers set the standard for Central African wood sculpture in museums worldwide. Colonial rubber and war scattered the chiefdoms across three states, but Luena markets, Lunda-Norte diamond diggings and Lusaka workshops keep Chokwe hands carving, and the Mwana Pwo still dances the dry season in. Luena carvers still export thrones to world museums. October rains still open the farming year in every village. Kinshasa, Luanda and Lusaka workshops employ Chokwe carvers today. Dry-season hunting camps still smoke the meat.