HEADWEAR FOR THE PROFESSIONS Headwear may also signify an individual’s status in a religious organization, profession, or military rank. Among the Fon peoples in the Republic of Benin, male and female initiates into the worship of the vodun (god) Agasu, a deified king, wear an openwork fiber cap with a veil made of cowrie shells. The shape of the headdress is reminiscent of a royal beaded crown (checklist no. 5).12 Both male and female diviners among the Tabwa peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo wear beaded headdresses with feathers projecting from the top and sides (checklist no. 25). The colorful bead-embroidered pattern of opposing isosceles triangles draws attention to the diviner’s head, which, according to the Tabwa and many other African peoples, is the site of an individual’s intelligence, creativity, wisdom, and clairvoyance. The central triangle motif is called “the eye of Kibawa,” a spirit who controls the domain of the head. The juxtaposed triangles on either side are said to represent his wives. During the divination ritual, these spirits possess the diviner and empower him or her to heal the client.13 Master hunters among the Malinke peoples of Mali are distinguished from ordinary men, sorcerers, and other hunters by their pillbox-shaped konkoron. The two duiker horns attached to the center of the hat signify the hunters’ special status (checklist no. 1). Both stylish and practical, they protect a hunter’s head from the bright sun, large thorns on branches, and snakes in trees, as well as from malevolent spirits that might attack his uncovered head to eat his brain. Furthermore, the hat is used as a drinking vessel and as a mold to form clay into hunting charms.14
In Kenya, among the pastoral Maasai, animal fur and ostrich feathers differentiate rank among warriors. Before the practice was prohibited by conservation laws, killing a lion was part of a male youth’s rite of passage into manhood. Having passed this test, the warrior was allowed to wear a tall lion’s mane headdress called a busby (checklist no. 42). Warriors who had yet to attain this goal wore an enkuraru, a face-framing headdress made of ostrich feathers (checklist no. 41).15 In South Sudan, high-ranking Lotuxo warriors wear brass helmets decorated with black weaver bird feathers and sometimes white ostrich plumes (checklist no. 36). An unusual feature of early versions of these helmets was found in the lining, which was often made of the warrior’s own hair. According to a late-19th-century observer, the warrior’s hair was woven with fine twine and trained into the shape of a helmet of about an inch and a half thick, and that was then partially covered with brass. As brass became more readily available through trade, segmented brass helmets replaced the earlier version. Such helmets continued to be used into the 1980s and were considered to be the most prestigious Lotuxan ornament.16 Similar to other traditional African masks and figures, headwear is about more than aesthetics: it is functional and meaningful. Headwear not only adorns the head but also honors the site of an individual’s intelligence, dreams, and destiny. It communicates information about the wearer, such as gender, status in society, membership in an association, rank in an organization, or affiliation with a deity. While some of the hats reproduced here belong to the past, some, like the Yoruba gele, are as current as tomorrow’s fashion.
CHECKLIST NO. 5, 25 (detail), 1