Skip to main content

/ Elaborate hairstyling, Congo, ca. 1900-1915

Have a question about this item?

Item information. View source record on contributor's website.

Title
Elaborate hairstyling, Congo, ca. 1900-1915
Creator
Unknown
Date Created and/or Issued
1900/1915
Publication Information
University of Southern California. Libraries
Contributing Institution
University of Southern California Digital Library
Collection
International Mission Photography Archive, ca.1860-ca.1960
Rights Information
Centre for the Study of World Christianity
Contact the repository for details.
The University of Edinburgh School of Divinity, New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX, United Kingdom
divinity-CSWC@ed.ac.uk
http://www.cswc.div.ed.ac.uk/collections/
Description
Black and white lantern slide showing three women with elaborate, braided hair styles. Hair styling was used among Luba women to encode memory about a person's history, status and occupation. One woman has a chin length braided style with a raised comb of hair across the top of her head. The woman in the centre of the image has a shorter braided style to ear length, and the youngest of the group has two long, matted braids. The older women in the group also bear geometric scarification marks (notably on their chins). Scarification was a process in which small scars were inflicted and their healing controlled in order to create patterns. The practice was common in Africa to denote status, history, ethnic group and beauty. For women, the ability to bear the pain of scarification was seen as a sign of the ability to endure the dangers of childbirth. The patterns were also seen as a mark of socialisation that marked humankind above the animal kingdom. Each women wears a short necklace around her neck. This slide comes from a collection generated by missionaries working for the Congo Balolo Mission, a mission begun in 1889 under the supervision of the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions that developed into the interdenominational evangelical mission Regions Beyond Missionary Union after 1900.
Format
lantern slides 8.2 x 8.2cm
lantern slides
photographs
Identifier
IMP-CSCNWW33-OS11-13.tif
http://doi.org/10.25549/impa-c123-78046
http://thumbnails.digitallibrary.usc.edu/IMP-CSCNWW33-OS11-13.jpg
Subject
Congo Balolo Mission
Women--Africa
Scarification (body marking)
Hairdressing
Women
Ethnic groups
Group portraits
Time Period
1900/1915
Place
Africa
Congo
populated places
Source
CSCNWW33/OS11/13 [File]
Relation
International Mission Photography Archive, ca.1860-ca.1960
Photographs from the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, U.K., ca.1900-ca.1940s
Regions Beyond Missionary Union. Congo People and Places (CSCNWW33/OS11)

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.

Explore related content on Calisphere: