H x W x D: 19.7 × 17.8 × 16.5 cm (7 3/4 × 7 × 6 1/2 in.)
Type:
Textile and Fiber Arts
Geography:
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Date:
Early to mid-20th century
Label Text:
Hats are important visual manifestations of Kuba ideas about ethnicity, status and leadership, worn by both male and female titleholders. The tall, conical kalyeem hat is the privilege of senior male titleholders, which often incorporates two or more beaded panels that hang from a small inverted cone on top of the hat. The most elaborate hats are used to dress the deceased at the funeral display and are later buried with the body.
All Kuba hats are created by male specialists from undyed raffia fiber using the basketry technique of coiling. As with most Kuba hats, this one begins with a coiled foundation in the form of a domed cap called a ‘laket,’ the most common type of hat worn by titled and non-titled men and which marks the newly achieved adult status of young men following their initiation. It forms the base for more elaborate Kuba hat styles. The ‘laket’ is often embellished with contrasting embroidery or oversewn with two to three tightly spaced rows of twisted raffia thread (‘mishiing’), thus adding a sculptural quality to the basic domed hat. As men accrue titles and achieve higher status, their hats are covered with appliqued hide, feathers, shells and beads and ornamented with iron feather holders and hat pins. The many surface textures and patterns of Kuba hats reflect the variations possible with the coiling technique and the skillful manipulation of the hat maker.
Description:
Conical raffia and plant fiber hat covered with cotton material and embellished with cowries and glass beads in yellow, dark blue, red and light blue. Cowries dangle from the base of the hat and surmount the top of the cone.
Provenance:
Eliot Elisofon, New York, -- to 1973
Exhibition History:
Fabrics of Africa, Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., September 15, 1988-February 15, 1989
African Emblems of Status, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 29, 1982-April 3, 1983
Content Statement:
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