While they are an aesthetically-inclined people, they do not usually have specifically-appointed artists; such occupations were viewed as additional skills, rather than as socially-valid vocations. However, skilled carvers may well be pressed into providing secular items – notably anthropomorphic thrones and stools – as well as paraphernalia for water divining (elongated stick-figures) traditional religious practices. While they have a detailed pantheon of deities and spirits (including Likube [High God], Limi [the Sun] and Liwelolo [the Universe]) ancestor worship is a more common affair. This takes the form of offerings of animals to one’s predecessors, having first invoked the help of Likube. Witchcraft and possession cults also exist, but are more secretive affairs.

The canons of Nyamwezi art are varied but follow certain tendencies. Most figures are comparatively tall, and made from heavy dark wood that gains a polished appearance from libations or continued handling. They are almost invariably standing, with long torsos, disproportionately short (flexed) legs and slender/nugatory arms. Heads are usually rounded, contrasting with an often angular body. The eyes are usually inlaid with beads, and some figures also have hair and inlaid teeth (a characteristic of Sukuma sculptures and masks). Their sometimes simplistic construction is offset by an ebullience and dynamism that makes the Nyamwezi one of East Africa’s most notable sculpting groups.