Object Details
- Label Text
- The Mbukushu peoples live along the Okavango River in the border areas of northeastern Namibia, Angola and Botswana. They are a Bantu-speaking people and are part of the larger Kavango (Okavango) group, comprising less than 10% of Namibia's population. Their origins may be traced to the Kwando River region in Angola and the Middle Zambezi River Valley (Zambia and Zimbabwe). They are believed to have entered the Kavango region from Angola and Botswana in the mid-late 18th century. Their primary occupations are farming, fishing and animal husbandry.
- Like other groups in northern Namibia, including the Herero, Himba and Wambo, those belonging to the Kavango group traditionally wore elaborate hairstyles that were specific to gender and defined one's age and marital status. Mbukushu women's coiffures were characterized by long tresses of twisted fiber and ornamented with decorative patterns of glass beads. This created the impression of long, straight hair preferred by Mbukushu women. To create the hairstyle, the head was rubbed with a mixture of sweet smelling grass, finely crushed pieces of wood from a particular tree and animal fat. Then the hair was plaited with long sisal tresses. The coiffure was decorated with glass beads, cowrie shells, copper buttons from old military coats and shell beads. Nowadays, synthetic ornaments and glass beads are commonly used.
- This wig may represent the thihukeka hairstyle of adult women that consists of long twisted sisal fibers and is characterized by a thick fiber crest atop the head. The wig offers Mbukushu women a more convenient method for displaying this traditional hairstyle, particularly on ceremonial occasions, for the hairstyle has largely disappeared except from the eastern part of Namibia.
- Description
- Fiber wig composed of a leather base, long Z-twisted fiber tresses, a thick forehead band and a raised fiber crest. The crest is adorned with a panel of yellow and white glass beads arranged in connecting triangular patterns; the panel tapers to a beaded tassel. Decorative glass bead strands encircle the forehead and back of head and extend around the lower part of the tresses. Beaded color combinations include black and white strands, yellow and white strands and the occasional small segments of red-orange glass beads. Three rectangular beaded panels ornamented with chevron designs--two with alternating blue and white designs, the other with alternative black and white designs--embellish the back of the headdress. Dark coloration around the forehead band suggests that it was treated with an oily substance and perhaps with red ochre.
- Provenance
- Private collection, -- to 1998
- Michael Oliver, New York, 1998 to 2004
- Exhibition History
- TxtStyles: Fashioning Identity, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 11-December 7, 2008
- Hair in African Art and Culture, Museum for African Art, New York, February 9-May 28, 2000
- Published References
- Sieber, Roy and Frank Herreman (eds). 2000. Hair in African Art and Culture. New York: The Museum for African Art; Munich: Prestel Verlag, p. 60, no. 67.
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Mbukushu artist
- Date
- Mid-late 20th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of Michael Oliver in memory of Roy Sieber
- Medium
- Leather, fiber, beads, pigment, oil
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 60 x 6.5 x 26.5 cm (23 5/8 x 2 9/16 x 10 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Textile and Fiber Arts
