Kiboko is the only hippo in my collection, made especially for me. My dear friends went on home leave to Tanzania, besides the stress of picking up their passports in time, they also went in circles to get their special orders: a hippo statue and a hippo painting, to bring back for me, now how great is that?! I named it after the Tanzanian word for hippo. Kiboko means whip in Kiswahili, because in the old days, people used to make whips of hippo skin. Those whips were being used to herd cattle and other livestock…. or to punish slaves… I still remember my first conversation with my friend about hippos. She told me that she did not like them (like most people in Africa, because they are so dangerous, and kill more people than lions or crocodiles), casually adding that her tribe does not eat hippo meat and that she could hear them snoring during the night, back in her home town. Kiboko is made of ebony, a very dense black wood, very difficult to carve… a lot of work for the craftsman…. but the result: a beauty! Didi, hippo birthday today!
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