Shetani

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Shetani (the word is both singular and plural in English, the plural in Swahili is mashetani) are spirits of East African mythology and popular belief. Mostly malevolent, and found in many different forms and different types with different powers, shetani are a popular subject of carved artwork, especially by the Makonde people of Tanzania, Mozambique, and Kenya. Physically, shetani of various types appear as distorted human and animal figures.

There is a contemporary East African shetani cult, and reports of sightings of individual shetani are cyclical, with Popo Bawa panics having occurred in 1995 in Zanzibar^[1] and 2007 in Dar es Salaam.^[2]

The influential Makonde artist George Lilanga (1934–2005) gained world renown with his shetani sculptures and paintings. Samaki Likankoa, master carver in Tanzania was the foremost originator of the shetani style in the early 1950s. Mohamed Peera, an Indian art curator was a major patron and influence to many makonde carvers such as Samaki, and played a decisive role in the abstract shetani makonde movement from the early 1950s to 1970s.