The use of headrests in southern Africa is ancient and has been traced as far back as the twelfth century at the archaeological site of Mapungubwe, an urban center along the Limpopo River. There, evidence of gold sheeting believed to have adorned a long-disintegrated wood headrest has been recovered. While headrests were designed to serve a functional purpose—to support the head while sleeping in order to protect elaborate hairstyles—their intimate connection with their owners is such that they are also seen as precious vehicles for communicating with an ancestral realm. In many instances, such artifacts are buried with their owners along with other personal items.

The design of such works is reflected in a range of regional styles. Shona sculptors and their neighbors to the southeast, the Tsonga, have been credited with the most varied formal solutions to the carving of the support element. The understated graphic simplicity of the classic Tsonga headrest (below, left) contrasts with the intricate and densely inscribed treatment of the vertical support of the Shona example. The abstract concentric and triangular motifs, here depicted in a rich variety of elegant patterns, have been interpreted on a metaphysical level as references to the ancestral realm, which is visualized as a sacred pool as well as a woman's womb, the site of regenerative power.