Man's Bwami Prestige Cap (sawamazembe) (early to mid-1900s): Art, History and Details

Man's Bwami Prestige Cap (sawamazembe) (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:

Among the Lega people of the eastern Democratric Republic of Congo, headgear was an important indicator of social position. Certain caps, headbands, and headdresses were the exclusive prerogative of the Bwami men's association. This headdress, called sawamazembe, was worn only by high-ranking members of this group. The hat's wig-like form represents a woman's coiffure, illustrating the blurring of gender distinctions among high-ranking Bwami members. The shell ornaments on the front suggest the moon, while buttons and a seed pod provide additional embellishment.

Object facts

• Title: Man's Bwami Prestige Cap (sawamazembe)
• Date: early to mid-1900s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lega-style maker
• Type: Garment
• Technique: Plant fiber, seashells, seeds, pods, buttons, and probably cotton
• Dimensions: Overall: 35.8 x 26.7 x 19.2 cm (14 1/8 x 10 1/2 x 7 9/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1995.211

A detail from the museum

This prestige cap combines local organic materials and imported machine-made materials like buttons.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Petridis, Constantine. "Good and Beautiful." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 46, no. 7 (September 2006): 7-11.
• Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. The language of beauty in African art. 2022.

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.