Most of the chess sets that come from Sub-Saharan Africa were made in the twentieth century. So are the beautiful pink and white chess pieces on display at the Chessmen Museum. However, that doesn’t mean that before that time no one played chess on the Dark Continent…
Sub-Saharan Africa does not have an extended art tradition. At least not when it comes to art as we define it in the western world. Only since the beginning of the twentieth century did abstract artists start to see more in the masks and statuettes than just out-of-proportion or childishly made arts and crafts. These artifacts had originally been made for the honoring of the ancestors though, and not for artistic purposes. Most of the African ‘artifacts’ were exported by Europeans and Americans and are now on display at western museums. Antique chess sets from Africa also left the Dark Continent. Nineteenth century chess pieces have been found but scientists are convinced that older games than that exist. Especially in countries where chess playing Europeans such as the Dutch, Portuguese and British set foot ashore.
Arabs export chess?
Before the European presence on the continent and the colonization that took place later on, Sub-Saharan Africa had already made its acquaintance with chess. On the east coast of Africa is the island of Zanzibar. During the times of the Old Testament there was a trade route stretching out from Arab Oman to Africa, where Zanzibar was the entrance to the hinterland. The establishment of tradesmen was stimulated even more when Islam made its appearance: in the seventh century Shiite refugees were stranded in the city. In 1993, in Oman, chess pieces made of sandstone were found that date all the way back to the tenth century. Therefore it is a very plausible theory that Oman refugees and tradesmen brought the chess pieces to Africa.
Western Africa had probably also already made its acquaintance with chess before the Europeans came to the continent. In 1925 British anthropologist C.K. Meek brought back three extraordinary chess games from the area of Borno in Nigeria. These chess sets are now part of the collections of the British Museum of Mankind, the New York Metropolitan and German master of chess Lothar Schmidt. Meek noticed that the members of the Kanuri tribe played the game in a different way than modern chess players would. They called it Tsatsarandi, which is similar to Shatranj, the direct predecessor of modern day chess. This ancient variety of chess was played a thousand years ago in the Middle East and the Kanuri still play by the Shatranj rules. In Europe chess players also played the game by these rules until after 1500, when chess evolved into the modern day game that includes the powerful queen.
Tourist wants wild animals
The majority of the Sub-Saharan chess sets that are known to us were made after 1930, when tourism started to gain importance. Local craftsmen started manufacturing products for trade, chess games being one of them. There was a special interest in chess sets that represented regional tribes or wild animals. Products from Kenya are usually pink, a creamy white or black, and are made of soapstone.
The only area where this type of stone can be found is Kisii, a district of southwest Kenya, east of Lake Victoria. The men mine the soft stone and manually shape it into their final form with chisels and files. When this process is done, the women polish the stone with water and sand until it is smooth and shiny. The kings and bishops in Kenyan chess sets made of soapstone often wear unique headgear, the traditional ogudi. Ogudi, covered in animal skin, were only worn by warriors. The king’s beard gives him extra status. In this region, beard growth doesn’t start until later in life and is therefore a symbol of wisdom.
The Chessmen Museum owns a number of African chess pieces, some of which are made of soapstone. The game in this picture is from the Glotzbach collection and is around fifty years old. The chess pieces, between three and six centimeters high, are carved out in great detail. The game board has been cut out on a polished stone plate with a diameter of twenty-two centimeters and is a true work of art.
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