Unknown Yoruba artist, NigeriaRoyal Hat, OrikogbofoGlass beads, cotton, threadGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.336

Developed over the latter half of the twentieth century, this type of hat is worn by traditional kings, or obas, to less formal, secular occasions. Unlike the sacred beaded crown with veil, a hat such as this one does not need to conform to any ancient canons, so the maker can use his imagination freely, inventing shapes, designs, and symbols. Contact with foreign trading partners and British colonizers also inspired new shapes and decorations, such as the fleur-de-lis, flowers, and crosses, which were combined with traditional faces, birds, zigzags, and interlace patterns. In this case, the embroiderer has included Yoruba words around the hat’s base meaning “your highness, the lord of Oke,” a salutation to the ruler of a town called Oke.

Unknown Yoruba artist, NigeriaRoyal Cap in the Form of a Barrister’s Wig, OrikogbofoGlass beads, cotton, threadGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.368

This is another beaded hat that might be worn by an oba (traditional king) when presiding over the activities of the court or when attending other social occasions. As a former British colony, Nigeria has retained vestiges of the British legal system, including the powdered wigs that are still worn by members of the judiciary as part of their official attire. This hat’s overt imitation of a barrister’s wig reminds onlookers that the power of the oba always transcends the secular power of the state (Arnoldi and Kreamer 1995, 47).

Unknown Kirdi artist, CameroonGirl’s CapGlass beads, buttons, pen case, metal, fiberGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.374

The Mandara Mountains, which lie along the northern part of the Nigeria-Cameroon border, are home to numerous small, lineage-based societies known collectively as the Kirdi, a label given to them by their Muslim neighbors that translates roughly as “pagan.” In spite of their relative isolation in the mountains, the Kirdi have historically been connected to regional and international trade networks. This is clearly illustrated by the beads, buttons, plastic pen case, and coin used to make this hat.

A hat like this one might have been worn by a young woman as she celebrated the harvest, paying tribute to the ancestors in a ceremony of feasts and dancing while adorned with metal bracelets, beaded necklaces, and calabash leg rattles.

Unknown Grasslands artist, CameroonPrestige Hat, AshetuCotton, woodGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.328

During the pre-colonial period, the Cameroon Grasslands near Nigeria were home to many small centralized kingdoms. Throughout the region, hats were and continue to be particularly important prestige items and symbols of identity: traditionally, slaves were forbidden to cover their heads, while freemen were obliged to do so. Using a wide array of materials, artisans create an astonishing variety of headgear. Woven and dyed caps like this one have long been valued objects distributed by rulers among important individuals and favorite clients.

This particular hat type is known as an ashetu and was constructed using “knotless netting,” a looping technique thought to be among the earliest textile processes. The bull’s-eye design at the top of this hat is a common feature.

Unknown Grasslands artist, CameroonPrestige HatFeathers, juteGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.324

In the Grasslands, prestigious headgear frequently features elements of the wilderness. Feathers are ideal, as they can be found in a variety of sizes, lengths, and hues. A hat such as this one might have been worn by palace dancers for celebrations and funerary ceremonies. This type of hat’s design is particularly innovative: the mesh cap to which the feathers are secured can be turned inside out, pulling the feathers inside its woven base and protecting them when the hat is not being worn.

Unknown Kuba artist, Democratic Republic of the CongoHat, KalyeemFiber, cowrie shells, beadsGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.383

Within the Kuba Kingdom, elite individuals traditionally competed over positions of power, signaling their upward mobility by commissioning local artisans to produce elegant prestige items. Worn by a senior male titleholder, a hat covered with intricately beaded designs such as this one is called kalyeem and is among the most visible signs of power and authority. As signs of leadership and symbols of cultural identity, these hats’ importance has remained constant throughout the twentieth century, even among men who have chosen to adopt Western styles of dress.

The typical kalyeem is cone-shaped and formed from thick coils of raffia, then covered with woven raffia or cotton cloth, upon which are sewn beads, shells, and sometimes feathers. The cowrie-covered panels flowing from this hat’s top are a fairly common feature, while the cylindrical form at its peak makes it somewhat distinctive.

Unknown Pende artist, Democratic Republic of the CongoHat with Hornlike Projections, Misango MayakaGlass beads, fiber Gift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.362

Though made by the Pende, beaded bicorn hats such as this are also traded to neighboring groups such as the Yaka and Suku. Among the Yaka, the hat’s horns symbolize leadership due to their association with the buffalo, the largest of African bovines. Glass beads, such as the bright blue and red ones covering this hat’s surface, came into the area from Czechoslovakia beginning in the early twentieth century.

Unknown Ekonda artist, Democratic Republic of the CongoChief’s Hat, MontoloFiber, pigment, brass93.3

This hat, known as montolo, was made to be worn by an Ekonda chief, or nkumu, in the African equatorial forest. This example shows its typical form, a multi-tiered fiber cylindrical hat, decorated in the front with a burnished brass disk. The disk not only enhances the hat visually, but also emphasizes the prominence and wealth of its owner.

The montolo is the key element of chiefly regalia, serving as a badge of office and sign of authority. It is presented to the nkumu after a lengthy preparatory process and at the end of an elaborate installation ceremony. If a new nkumu is the first in his line to hold the office, he must purchase his own montolo; in the case of succession, he inherits that of his deceased predecessor. Once he has taken office, the new nkumu can no longer be seen in daylight with an uncovered head. Upon his death, the montolo is removed from the nkumu’s head and kept by the elders until a successor takes his place.

Unknown Lega artist, Democratic Republic of the CongoHat, MukubaFiber, buttons, shells, cloth, reed, elephant tailGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.363

Hats such as this one were historically worn by members of the Lega people’s Bwami Association. Formerly, all adult men belonged to Bwami, a multi-level organization that was a source of political, moral, social, economic, and spiritual authority. This hat may have been intended for a Bwami member; however, features such as its uniform patination suggest that it could also have been made for sale to outsiders.

Bwami hats are generally cone-shaped, made of plaited fiber decorated with various attachments, and held in place by a strap fixed to the sides and passed under the chin. The specific attachments indicate the hat owner’s rank within Bwami. Mollusk shells, such as those on this hat, refer to the second highest Bwami rank. The most significant feature of this hat, though, is the elephant tail at its apex, which refers to the highest rank. The combination of mollusk shells and elephant tail on this hat is somewhat unorthodox and may be another indication that this hat was made for sale (Elisabeth Cameron, personal communication, 2014).

C lothing is powerful. What we wear communicates our personalities, beliefs, and origins. The twelve African hats discussed here are drawn from various places in

western and central Africa and offer insight into the shared and individual cultures from which they came. Thoughtfully designed by skilled artisans, they evoke the themes of power, passage, and protection and embody histories that cut across countries and cultures within Africa and beyond.

These headdresses are creative expressions of the centuries-long trade relationships between Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, conveying the exchange of goods and ideas in visual form and indicating the wealth and power of their owners. Many of the materials used in their construction derive social, spiritual, and material value from their historical use as currencies by traders crisscrossing the deserts of West and North Africa and navigating the rivers of central Africa. Metals such as gold and copper speak to Africa’s indigenous wealth and ancient metallurgical technologies, which were developed to meet the demands of kings, commoners, and foreign markets for metal currencies and prestige items. Cowrie shells have similarly been used throughout Africa for hundreds of years as money, amulets, and items of adornment.

Beads are also powerful symbols of indigenous technologies and historical trade relationships. For centuries, the peoples of Africa have been making beads from seeds, nuts, shells, bones, tusks, teeth, stone, coral, jasper, ivory, metal, and glass. Foreign beads began arriving at trading posts along the African coasts by at least the fourth century. Over the last century, buttons, coins, and other items have been added to the repertoire of materials used to decorate prestige items. Hats adorned with these highly valued trade items are symbols of their owners’ participation in or control over local and international trade networks.

Embellishments to hats, such as leather-wrapped claws and gilded amulets, provide their owners with protection from harmful forces. Products derived from the natural environment—such as feathers, shells, claws, strips of leather, woven fibers, and elephant tails—are believed to contain the power of the wilderness from which they came. Gold and metal are also widely believed to be powerful materials capable of subverting malevolent forces. These hats and their attachments combine local and imported forms and materials to create symbols more potent than any of their individual components.

FantasticAfrican Hats

Power, Passage, and Protection

Unknown Dogon or Mande artist, MaliHunter’s HatCotton, leather, clawsGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.387

Unknown Baule artist, Côte d’IvoireChief’s HatVelvet, cardboard, gold leafGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.334

Unknown Yoruba artist, NigeriaCrown, AdenlaGlass beads, cotton, fiber, wood, threadGift of Budd Stalnaker, 2006.405

Designed to be worn by a Dogon hunter in Mali, hats such as this one symbolize the hunter’s role as a bridge between the civilized village and the savage bush. Their attachments are visual reminders of the hunters’ powers over the wilderness, and they offer spiritual protection for the hunters who wear them. The bush is a forbidding realm, inhabited by dangerous animals and spirits. It is also the source of all wisdom, knowledge, power, and everything that makes life possible. The successful hunter must possess superhuman skills and be able to overpower his prey using spiritual means. Items taken from the natural environment—especially those from the untamed bush, such as the claws and curling strips of leather attached to this hat—evoke and harness the power of the wilderness and the animals it contains. Similar hats are worn by the hunters of related ethnic groups, including the Mande peoples, throughout the Western Sudan.

Caps such as this one, made of deep red imported velvet and studded with gold ornaments, are worn by Baule dignitaries to display their wealth, communicate symbolic messages, and evoke the protection of ancestors and former kings. Though some hats have solid gold attachments, this one is adorned with pieces of carved wood covered in gold leaf. These attachments depict the human face, a common subject in Baule goldwork, and symbols related to leadership. The rectangular ornaments incised with crisscrossing lines are visually similar to a common gold bead that represents a bamboo screen, a reference to a leader’s responsibility and knowledge: as the screen “sees” both inside and outside the room, so must a leader know what is happening both within his village and beyond it (Walker 2010, 68). The elephant on the top is especially fitting: among the Baule, the leader’s preeminence and power is equated to that of the elephant, as expressed by the proverb “He who follows the elephant is not touched by the dew.”

According to oral tradition, Oduduwa, the maker of land and father of the Yoruba, began the tradition of wearing the veiled, beaded crown, or adenla, to represent kingship and restricted its ownership to his descendants. That tradition continues today, as beads are the chosen emblems of the gods, and ownership of beaded items is reserved primarily for kings.

Beaded crowns are first constructed by stretching wet starched cloth over a wicker or cardboard cone-shaped frame. After this has dried in the sun, the embroiderer may mold relief figures into the crown, such as the elephant faces on this example, using shaped pieces of cloth dipped in wet starch. To create the beaded designs, the embroiderer tacks single-colored strands of beads onto the crown’s surface. He chooses designs based on the desires of the king who commissioned his work, filling in any remaining space with designs of his own choosing (Beier 1982, 34).

This crown features a variety of symbols. Most prominently, the bird at the top may refer to okin, the royal bird, or the powerful female ancestors known as “our mothers.” Though Yoruba crowns typically feature one or more human faces, here they have been replaced with the faces of elephants, which are symbols of leadership.

Possibly the most significant element of this crown is its beaded veil. The king’s divine countenance is considered dangerously powerful, so the primary purpose of this veil is to protect onlookers from his gaze. The veil also conceals the king’s identity and gives him an aura of divine presence, diminishing his individuality and uniting him with his royal predecessors.

Further Reading

Abiodun, Rowland. “Verbal and Visual Metaphors: Mythical Allusions in Yoruba Ritualistic Art at Ori.” Word and Image, no. 3 (1987): 252-70.

Arnoldi, Mary Jo, and Christine Mullen Kreamer. 1995. Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California.

Beier, Ulli. 1982. Yoruba Beaded Crowns: Sacred Regalia of the Olokuku of Okuku. London: Ethnographica, in association with the National Museum, Lagos.

Biebuyck, Daniel, and Nelly Van den Abbeele. 1984. The Power of Headdresses: A Cross-Cultural Study of Forms and Functions. Brussels: Tendi.

Garrard, Timothy F. 1989. Gold of Africa: Jewellery and Ornaments from Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Senegal in the Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum. Photographs by Pierre-Alain Ferrazzini. Munich: Prestel.

Ross, Doran H. 1992. Elephant: The Animal and its Ivory in African Culture. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California.

Walker, Roslyn Adele. 2010. The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Writing: Brittany SheldonEditing: Madeline GrdinaPhotography: Kevin MontagueDesign: Eric Van Scoik

This brochure was produced in conjunction with Fantastic African Hats: Power, Passage, and Protection, a display organized for Focalpoint in Indiana University Art Museum’s Raymond and Laura Wielgus Gallery of the Arts of Africa, the South Pacific, and the Americas. On display February 17 through May 24, 2015, Fantastic African Hats was organized by Brittany Sheldon, 2014–15 graduate assistant for the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

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