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Fowler inherits African 'Crowning Achievements'

Latest museum exhibit highlights traditional, contemporary headgear

By Barbara E. Hernandez

Daily Bruin Staff

As the first group entered the museum, there was a slight hush as it took in the solitude and the lit objects. One, a chief's hat, or botolo from Zaire, towers at least 2 1/2 feet in the air with what looks like brass symbols. "Imagine what it feels like on your head," says Mary Jo Arnoldi, curator of African ethnology at the Smithsonian.

Unlike Western society, where the hat has lost many ritual or symbolic components, hats in other cultures are not merely functional, but they give a person an identity and a sense of community.

"A hat gives people a sense of importance," says Arnoldi, "and lets everyone know it."

"Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head," now showing at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, features a collection of hats and headdresses from Africa as well as their contemporary influenced styles like Rastafarian wig hats and streetwear.

The first part of the show consists of 12 hats from various regions, one of which is the botolo from Zaire, seemingly dominating whatever space it's in. Each hat reflects the culture and the society of its region.

A Namibian woman's hat with a leather veil unrolled only for marriage or her widowhood, evokes images of cattle, a valued commodity in the region.

"They are not saying women are cattle. Cattle are life, and they are saying women are life, and as valuable," Arnoldi says. "It's a difficult concept for our culture to understand."

Other cultures also influence some of the hat designs. The Kalahari Ijo chief hats incorporate ostrich feathers, mirrors, plastic rockets, Christmas ornaments and spangles picked up from trading. "The Kalahari are great traders," says Arnoldi, "and Western objects are not a problem."

The 18th-century Ethiopian priest's crown draws attention to the Christian influence in Ethiopia. In the fourth century A.D., Ethiopia became the Abyssinian Christian Kingdom, with priests and other high-ranking clergy wearing crowns in rituals and ceremonies.

The crown is unlike others because it is uniquely cast in silver "It's very unusual," says Arnoldi. "It wasn't until the advent of the Marie Therese thalar, which was so fully silver that it was often melted down to make jewelry or ornaments."

Arnoldi, who lives in Africa, quickly adds that most of the art found in Africa now is freely given, bartered or bought. "The priest's crown," she says, "was given to the first American Ambassador to Ethiopia. (To obtain the art) is not necessarily about raping another culture."

The exhibit shows how hat styles can cross cultures with the African influenced contemporary head wear. A tightly braided wig seems to stand out among the Jamaican and American styles.

"It's called the Peter Tosh hat," says Christine Mullen Kreamer, a visiting curator at the Museum of Natural History, referring to the reggae artist. "It was made after Peter Tosh toured Africa, in a way to celebrate him and his hair, something people had never seen before."

"Crowning Achievements" also delves into the ancient, and often Islamic art of head wrapping, concentrating on the nomadic Tuareg, where head wrapping exists more for social reserve than Islamic codes.

For the Tuareg, the women have an elaborate head wrapping that signifies to the society and her husband that she owns the tent. Unlike other members of Islamic society, the Tuareg men wear veils instead of the women.

For the Yoruba of Nigeria, head wrapping for women offers a sense of decorum. Often, since hair is unseen in public, women attend professional head wrappers to have an elaborate style.

EXHIBIT:"Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head." Now showing at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History through July 16. Admission is free. For more info call (310) 825-4361.

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