This object, known as Ekori, is a sacred part of the Ovaherero pre-colonial women’s clothing, worn as a type of hair dressing. Basically, Ekori was worn by married women, and held in place by a head band studded with iron beads. Ekori was a solemnity of matrimony object, worn above leather women’s bonnets like those exhibited under the inventory numbers V 15168 N 02 & V 15169 N 02, alongside shin ornamental bands such as those exhibited under inventory numbers 60558 and 60559. At weddings the bride was solemnly crowned with an Ekori and a woman’s bonnet by her mother to mark the bride’s new status as an adult and married woman. Ekori is made of iron beads and animal skin usually derived from game animals of Namibian origin, and supplemented by the animal skin of domestic animals in pastoral communities like the Herero. It is so crafted to seem like and symbolise the horns of a cow, which is an economically and spiritually iconic animal in the Hereroland, e.g. the cow was the Herero’s main source of wealth and sustenance. The 19th century missionaries considered the cow horns symbolism as devilish and rejected it, thereby causing the people to people to switch the material from which Ekori was made, from animal to fabric; hence, its current name, Otjikaiva “headgear made from fabric”.
It can be assumed that the collector Ernst Bernhard Kandler brought this and seven other objects from Namibia, where he stayed from 1895 (with some interruptions).
Since he was back in Germany from February 1904 at the latest, he must have gotten hold of the clothing and jewelry pieces before then. Thus, it can at least be excluded that the objects originate from the war of extermination of the German colonial power against the Herero.
The exact circumstances of the acquisition remain unclear so far (processing status: 2023). The objects from Ernst Bernhard Kandler's donation are still to be classified as sensitive.
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