Traditional women's headdress "ekori" · Namibia, Herero · ID: 3047991
sold
EUR 9,000
Provenance
German Colonial Collection (before 1914)Size
H: 50 cm
H: 19.7 inch
Description
hide (sheep or goatskin), iron beads,
Consisting of leather cap “ocipa” with three lancet-shaped, pointed leather horns “ozonya”, which are decorated with fine decorative stitches.
The headdress “ekori” was worn exclusively by married women on special occasions.
It was complemented by a veil made of animal skin, which was rolled up and framed the woman’s face.
Only when a young bride was escorted in solemn procession to her husband’s hut did she wear the veil open so that it covered her face. Even when a woman returned to her parental home as a widow, she wore her face veiled in this way.
Comparing literature
Szalay, Miklós, Die ethnographische Südwestafrika-Sammlung Hans Schinz 1884-1886, Zürich 1979, p. 48