As much as I say I love all things African, that statement probably requires a little clarification.
I love MOST things African. Some things that are very African in nature I don’t really feel will (or should!) become trends.
Here are a few examples to make my case.
Labrets – these are also known as lip plugs.
These were traditionally worn by the Ngoni women of Malawi, Mursi women of Northern Kenya and the Omo women of Ethiopia to name a few.
They would basically cut a slit in their lower lip and insert circular, flat discs or plugs of varying sizes. They would, over the course of a few months, insert gradually larger discs to stretch the slit. Apparently the larger the lip plug, the more value in terms of dowry her family could expect when she got married. They wouldn’t wear them all the time, only when they were around men.
The discs were made variously of clay, wood, coiled brass wire and other materials.
If you take a close look at the picture, you’ll see that her ears don’t look exactly, well, normal.
Which leads me to my not-to-happen trend number two:
Ear stretching also known as ear gauging. I’m all for ear jewellery but I want them to attach to my ear lobes, not become part of my lobes!
The method used is essentially the same as that for lip plugs.
Infant head moulding.
Yes, you read right.
The deliberate flattening of baby’s heads to create a more “desirable” shape. This was historically quite common amongst the Mangbetu people of what is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Women would wrap babies’ heads in cloth to elongate the skull. It was, bizarrely in my view, considered more socially desirable to have this shape head. In grown women a basket would then be attached to the head and the hair styled to cover the hair to accentuate the head shape even more!
In this picture you can get a general idea of what the desired end result was.
So there you have it, my top African anti-trends!
No comments:
Post a Comment