Antique smoking pipe and tobacco compactor ebony-2 items Maconde Tanzania 1 item-themselves tube with wood carving-Lev chases the deer 2 item Bust of a naked African woman from the same black tree, probably to seal tobacco. Carving of the Maconde tribe circa 1960 Good condition Makonde is a people living mainly in the south of Tanzania, between the Lukuledi and Ruvuma rivers, and partly in northeastern Mozambique. The total number is more than 1.5 million people. Tanzania had a population of 1,140,000 in 2001, compared with 233,358 Macondee in Mozambique in 1997. The Makonde language belongs to the eastern subgroup of the Bantu group (zone P). The religion of most Makonde is Sunni Islam, a prominent part professes Christianity or adheres to traditional beliefs. The influence of Swahili and Arabs is noticeable in the culture. The main traditional occupation is manual slash-and-burn farming; developed waste on sisal plantations and in the city. Developed wood carving. The Eben tree, or Eben, is the black (or striped) wood of some tropical trees of the genus Diospyros that grow in the humid tropical forests of West, Central and East Africa. South and Southeast Asia, on the islands of the Indian Ocean, in the monsoon forests of India and the island of Ceylon. Kernel wood without noticeable annual rings is very hard and heavy and belongs to the most valuable tree species.