Bwami Prestige Cap (Mukuba or Nkumbu) (early to mid-1900s): Art, History and Details

Bwami Prestige Cap (Mukuba or Nkumbu) (early to mid-1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Hats of different types, sizes, and materials figure prominently in the Lega people’s Bwami association where they indicate status and rank. Cone-shaped hats made of canvas covered with cowrie shells and surmounted by an elephant tail are worn during initiations into kindi, the highest of the five male grades. This prestige cap uses a variety of local and imported materials to show its wearer's importance. The plant fibers that support the hat and the elephant hair were sourced in Central Africa, while the beads and cowrie shells were imported. The beads were made in Europe, while the cowrie shells came from the Indian Ocean region. The might of Bwami members is likened to the elephant’s potentially destructive strength.

Object facts

• Title: Bwami Prestige Cap (Mukuba or Nkumbu)
• Date: early to mid-1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lega-style maker
• Type: Garment
• Technique: Plant fibers, elephant rawhide and hair, cowrie shells, glass beads, and cord
• Dimensions: Overall: 52.1 x 21.6 x 39.4 cm (20 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 15 1/2 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2005.56

A detail from the museum

While identified with Africa, cowrie shells were generally imported from the Indian Ocean region. After being collected near the Maldives islands, these Indo-Pacific shells entered parts of Africa via overseas trade routes.

Collection credit

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Petridis, Constantine. "New Acquisitions of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art". African Arts. (44) No. 1, Spring 2011. Pg. 57, Fig. 5.
• Arnoldi, Mary Jo, Christine Mullen Kreamer, and University of California, Los Angeles Fowler Museum of Cultural History. 1995. Crowning Achievements : African Arts of Dressing the Head. Los Angeles, Calif: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, p. 155, fig. 8.16.
• Ross, Doran H, and University of California, Los Angeles Fowler Museum of Cultural History. 1992. Elephant : The Animal and Its Ivory in African Culture. Los Angeles, Calif., USA: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, p. 294, fig. 14.1.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.