The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Ceremonial Axe (gano)

1900s, by 1928

Southern Africa, Zimbabwe, Shona-style blacksmith-carver

Iron, wood, and metal
Overall: 15.8 cm (6 1/4 in.)
Gift of the African Art Sponsors of Karamu House 1929.364
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This ceremonial axe has a half-moon piece of metal nailed to it, marked "EKB Depose." It is part of the mechanism for a pocket watch made by Edward Kummer of Bettlach, whose Swiss factories marked watches with his initials between 1888 and 1932.

Description

This ceremonial axe (gano) showcases its maker’s skill in using different materials. The crescent-shaped blade was likely locally forged; braided wires and a Swiss pocket watch fragment on the handle were imported. Like the headrest nearby, gano were gendered female; a small headrest is carved at top. Too fine for battle, a man may have held it as a status or ancestral symbol during rituals or dancing. Though made for centuries, religious use of knives and axes waned due to early 20th-century Christianity and government laws. Rising independence-era Zimbabwean nationalism (1960s–70s) revived tradition-based religion and associated objects like the gano.
  • 1927–28
    Collected by Paul B. Travis on behalf of the Gilpin Players at Karamu House and the African Art Sponsors in Zimbabwe
    1927–28
    The African Art Sponsors and the Gilpin Players
    1929–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art by gift
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 It appears on a checklist of "African Material" circa 1928 as "1 ax, metal disk in back part of old swiss watch movement, Shangaan, Southern Rhodesia." Archives of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
    2 12/3/1928 letter to the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History from Hazel Mountain Walker (Gilpin Players, president) and Harry E. Davis (African Art Sponsors, president) reproduced on p. 54 of Adams, Henry et al. Paul Travis 1891-1975. Cleveland Artists Foundation, 2001.
  • Arts of Africa. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 10, 2021-July 2, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=Ceremonial Axe (gano)|url=false|author=|year=1900s, by 1928|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.364