1992.21 Bead-embroidered prestige hat (mpaan)

The Kuba kingdom, founded in the early 17th century in the central part of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, is made up of several different ethnicities that pay tribute to a king (nyim). The first nyim was the legendary Shyaam-a-Mbul Ngwoong who introduced the administrative and political structures that continue today. Hats and headdresses were and are the most visible expression of one’s standing within the intricate Kuba system of leadership and titleholding.

Senior female titleholders wear the mpaan, which combines the conical shape of the kalyeem with a rigid semicircular half-crown shape. The mpaan is decorated with beads and cowrie shells and may be further embellished with feathers. A beaded stem projects from the crown of the Dallas mpaan, and the lateral forehead band is extended by three-dimensional cowrie and bead-embroidered rectangles.

Used as part of one's funeral display, these symbols of status were not inherited by family members but usually buried, along with other emblems, with the deceased.

n.d.: Cooner Collection, Dallas

1992: Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Alma McKinney, purchased from above

Notes: The main source for this provenance is the Accession Screen, May 1997, in the Collections Records object file.

Apply to objects where number equals 1992.21