Traditional women's headdress "ekori" ·  Namibia, Herero · ID: 3048621

Description

hide (sheep or goatskin), glass 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.

In the late 19th century, in the course of Christianisation, the “ekori” was replaced by a headdress made of cloth, “otjikaiva”.

Comparing literature

Arnoldi, Mary Jo & Christine Mullen Kreamer, Crowning achievements, Los Angeles 1995, p. 36 f. Szalay, Miklós, Die ethnographische Südwestafrika-Sammlung Hans Schinz 1884-1886, Zürich 1979, p. 48