Base for a sandal (mtalawanda / mtawanda) or Clog (kiatu cha mti)

c 1800s

Base for a sandal (mtalawanda / mtawanda) or Clog (kiatu cha mti), c 1800s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, unidentified carver. Wood; overall: 6 x 10.2 cm (2 3/8 x 4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Educational Purchase Fund 1929.566.1.a This distinctive footwear traveled from from Southeast Asia and the Middle East to Africa, first to the Swahili Coast and then further inland to parts of Central Africa. The deity Krishna wears similar shoes (paduka) in an eighteenth-century Indian miniature painting (2003.344).