Headrests

NOA Living’s Headrest Collection offers sculptural objects of quiet power—sacred and refined. Carved by hand from the early to mid-20th century, these pieces originate from Zulu, Dinka, Ethiopian, and other pastoral cultures where headrests held deep spiritual and artistic meaning.
More than functional supports, these forms were conduits between the living and ancestral worlds—personal icons that guarded sleep, fertility, and memory. Their purity of line, geometric harmony, and symbolic projections speak to an aesthetic language both timeless and deeply rooted. Raised patterns like amasumpa, breast-like curves, and tail-like extensions reveal a dialogue between form, cattle wealth, and spiritual abundance.
Like devotional icons in Western tradition, these headrests are objects of reverence—linking body and spirit, past and present. At NOA Living, we present them not only as cultural heirlooms, but as enduring works of art.