vintagecongo:Amadi woman with traditional hair called Edamburu, Okondo’s Village, Belg
vintagecongo: Amadi woman with traditional hair called Edamburu, Okondo’s Village, Belgian Congo by Lang-Chapin [ Before she cut off her hair]. This hairstyle is also a traditional Mangbetu hairstyle. Tribes like the Amadi…though not completely assimilated (during the Belgian Congo) have nevertheless been greatly influenced, politically and culturally by the Azande. [Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo By René Lemarchand] and the Azande and Mangbetu have a lot of cultural similarities. She cut her hair off and sold it to the Europeans Sticks used for arranging the braided string over the hair. Not all women use it. I took a photograph of NENSIMA with the sticks in use. After they arrive with the string above the forehead they push these sticks underneath the partly finished portion and then they continue the process with much less trouble. There is another string used behind; the braided string does not lay about the hair in circles, but when reaching the back the braided string is folded and carried forward. The string behind is drawn between the fold, there is a slight distance left behind between the braided string that allows at the withdrawal of the stick to tie up the braided string by simply pulling it downward. See photograph. Nearly every day the hair is newly arranged by simply laying with a needle one round near the other. Indeed in a well made hairdress not a single hair is sticking out between the different braided strings. The women are naturally very proud of their hairdress and it is only with great difficulties that permission is obtained to cut the hair off [Basically this hair style involves weaving hair] The hairstyle from Mangbetu women Here are depictions of women with the hairstyle Malvina Hoffman’s statue Dope -- source link