Object Details
- 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 light blue, white, yellow and dark blue. Cowries dangle from the base of the hat, and strips of cotton with cowries hang from either side of the top of the hat.
- Provenance
- Eliot Elisofon, New York, -- to 1973
- 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 Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks.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
- Kuba artist
- Date
- Early to mid-20th century
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Eliot Elisofon
- Medium
- Cotton, plant fiber, raffia, shell, glass beads
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 20.3 × 16.5 × 9.5 cm (8 × 6 1/2 × 3 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Textile and Fiber Arts
