Detail of straw and leather hat from western Africa (TRC 2021.1962).Thanks to the help of Dr. Annette Schmidt, curator for sub-Saharan Africa at the Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden, we have some more details about the straw/grass hat with leather details (TRC 2021.1962) mentioned in an earlier TRC Blog.
This type of hat has been worn since at least the mid-19th century by nomads and cattle herders living in West Africa. It is particularly associated with the Fulani, Hausa, as well as the Zerma. Examples of this type of headwear, with variations such as the height of the crown and decoration, can be found in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, as well as Togo.
Straw and leather hat from Mali, western Africa. Courtesy collection of the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (RV-739-1525).The Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen has several examples of this form of headwear, some of which date from before 1889 (such as RV-739-1521, RV-739-1523 and, probably of more recent date, RV-739-1525). I have just spotted examples in the British Museum Collection as well.
Such headwear is also mentioned in Norma H. Wolff’s article ‘Hausa in Nigeria and diaspora’, in J. B. Eicher and D. H. Ross (2010), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion Vol 1, Africa, Oxford: Berg Publishers, p.306.
However, we still have not been able to identify the leather form of headwear that was also mentioned in the previous blog (TRC 2021.1963), and once again any help would be greatly appreciated.
Gillian Vogelsang, Director TRC, 19 June 2021.
