Zulu women wear wide hats like this one, called Isicholos, to proclaim their married status. The hat is based on a hairstyle that married Zulu women wore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially, Zulu women shaved their heads, leaving a tuft of hair that they covered with fat and ochre. Later they grew the tuft into a truncated cone, wove other materials into the hair and covered their hair with fat and ochre. The women also wore headbands as a sign of respect for the adult men in their husbands families.

By the turn of the century a woven hat that to this day is usually worn on special occasions replaced the cone-shaped hairstyle. This hat has a circular basketry frame over which a cotton cloth is stretched and knotted at the top. Overstitching the cloth produced the concentric circles that begin at the top of the hat and continue over the sides.

If you have more information concerning this object, its symbolism, its ritual use, its ethnic group, do not hesitate to leave us a comment by clicking the lower button..

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

Â

+/- 40

Afrique du Sud

Zulou

35 x 5

1.000