Cleveland Museum of Art

Headdress

Date

1900s

Medium

African gray parrot feathers, wood, plant fiber, probably cotton, string, and colorant

Culture

Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, Grassfields region, Bamileke-style maker

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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. This headdress has an ingenious built-in storage system: it can be flipped inside out to encase the feathers within a rigid woven structure, protecting them during storage or travel.

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