A waga is a hardwood post carved with an adze and set on the grave of a Konso man of standing. It never stands alone: the dead man holds the centre with the kallacha rod projecting from his forehead, his wives ranged on one side and the enemies he killed on the other, all on one baseline, tallest at the middle.

Left in the field the posts silver. Sun opens the grain, splits run the length of the timber, insects cut channels across it, and the red-ochre paint survives only where the adze left a hollow. That weathered grey is the object's true state — this system is built from it, not from the gallery finish.