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Headdress
1900s
- Medium
- African gray parrot feathers, wood, plant fiber, probably cotton, string, and colorant
- Classification
- Garment
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 90 cm (35 7/16 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, Grassfields region, Bamileke-style maker
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Sundry Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Hundreds of red tail feathers from the grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) decorate this disk-shaped headdress. Only the king, some high-ranking individuals, and members of the all-male elephant society—known in different languages as Kuosi, Nekang, or Kem-ndze—wore this prestigious headgear at ceremonies and funerals. Typically, the headdress was worn pushed slightly back from the hairline. When used by members of the elephant society, it was accompanied by a cloth and glass bead mask (mbap mteng) in the shape of that animal, such as 1985.1082.
