Shekere owned by Dr. Baba Chuck Davis: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A shekere owned by Dr. Baba Chuck Davis. The instrument is constructed from a dried, hallow gourd with beads woven into a net covering the rounded portion of the gourd. The netting is made from knotted string and red and white plastic beads. The beads have been woven into alternating red and white stacked triangles. The top of the netting is decorated with the string ends that have been unraveled and brushed out into fluff. Dark ink markings on the top of the shakere read [P[---?]S]. The bottom of the shakere is a handle fashioned from the top of gourd that have been sliced diagonally. A thicker string has been attached to two (2) holes at the bottom of the shakere and held in place with thick knots in the interior of the gourd.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: mid 20th-early 21st century
• Manufactured by: Unidentified
• Owned by: Charles Rudolph Davis, American, 1937 - 2017
• Type: sekeres
• Medium: gourd with plastic and string (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 13 9/16 × 7 7/8 × 7 7/8 in. (34.5 × 20 × 20 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Africa
• Topic: Modern dance
• Topic: Music
• Object number: A2018.98.1.4
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Ngoma & Normadien Woolbright in memory of Dr. Chuck Davis
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No known copyright restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.