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View at the museum ↗Dance Hat (Juju)
Bamileke20th century
- Attribution
- Bamileke Cameroon Coastal West Africa
- Medium
- Wool, rattan, and human hair
- Physical dimensions
- 55.9 × 27.9 cm (22 × 11 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Donald Young and Shirley Weese Young
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Source rights statement: Public-domain image eligibility not established by this export
View the museum record ↗From the museum
Hats and helmets that imitate traditional hairstyles are common across parts of Africa, and some items of headwear also incorporate real human hair into their material construction. In the case of this helmet headdress, hair has been inserted into the six long coils (or “braids”), adding to its power and potency—and by extension that of its wearer—during dances and performances. This piece would have been worn during ceremonies relating to juju , the complex of medicine, music, and dance at the center of Grassfields’s secret societies, which have long played an important role in the northwestern and western regions of Cameroon.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0