- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Plaited hide belt with stringwork apron at front, worn by women [RTS 10/12/2004].
- Long description
- Woman's waist garment, consisting of a narrow belt with a stringwork apron hanging down from the centre. The belt body has been made from 3 horizontal bands sewn together, each composed of 2 narrow hide strips, perforated along their lengths and interwoven with one another to produce a herringbone pattern. These strips have been placed side by side, and then stitched together using a length of 2 ply twisted grass fibre cord, that is passed backwards and forwards across the body through the gaps. This is visible on either long side as a series of running stitches; it is a yellowish brown colour (Pantone 7509C). The belt body has become compressed, creating a curved outer face and a concave inner face. The cord is knotted off at one end, and left unknotted at the other, where a long length of it hangs loose; this may have been used to tie the belt in place around the waist. The hide strips, which are an orangey to grayish brown colour (Pantone 4635C) are a paler yellow on their inner face. These continue beyond the ends of the plaited belt body as individual lengths, that would perhaps have been bound together to create a stiff 'tail' when worn. At the centre of the belt a narrow section of cream coloured stringwork has been added to form a small apron (Pantone 7401C). This is made from lengths of cotton, possibly European, gathered into bundles and threaded through the hide to leave two sections of equal length hanging down from the inside face. These are positioned side by side to create a massed stringwork body. A small knot has been tied in the end of each piece of string; the cotton has spread to form a furry head just below. The object is complete, and intact, and has a weight of 60.8 grams. It has a length of 1100 mm, when extended; the belt is 15.3 mm wide and 5 mm thick, with each component hide strip being 4 mm wide; the stringwork apron is 140 mm long and 55 mm wide; each string piece has a diameter of 1 mm, while the cord stitching has a diameter of 1.8 mm [RTS 10/12/2004].
- Geographical reference
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1910
- Date collected
- 1895 - 1910
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 03/1981
- Materials and processes
- Material Animal Hide Skin, Material Cotton Seed Fibre Yarn Plant, Material Grass Fibre Plant, Material String, Process Twisted, Process Stitched, Process Knotted, Process Perforated, Process Plaited
- Dimensions
- Length 1100 mm, Width 15.3 mm belt, Length 140 mm apron, Width 55 mm apron, Weight 60.8 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1981.8.11
- Research and responses
Similar stringwork aprons are worn by the Lango (1925.14.6) and possibly Acholi (see 1942.1.445-446); these are usually darker in colour and may be coated with ochre. Driberg discusses this type of garment in his book on the Lango: 'From about the age of five girls wear over the pudenda a few strings or threads (called chip) made from the hibiscus, increasing in number with the age of the wearer. There are attached to a thin leather girdle (del) which is fastened behind and twisted into a stick-like leather continuation (achudi) which projects backwards. If the father is prosperous, an unmarried girl wears an ariko, or apron of small metal chains in place of threads. (J.H. Driberg 1923, The Lango, pp 64-65). The chip and achudi del are illustrated by a photograph opposite p. 64. According to Driberg, achudi is simply defined as a Protuberance or projection. 'Achudi del' is specifically the projecting ends of this type of girdle (J.H. Driberg, 1923, The Lango, p. 359, defined in his Lango-English dictionary at the back of the volume). The loose hide strips at the back of this example could be an unbound 'tail' of this type. Two decades after Driberg published his book on the Lango, Hayley observed that 'The chip is only worn on certain ceremonial occasions by the modern woman who wears clothes' (T.T.S Hayley, 1947, The Anatomy of Lango Religion and Groups, p. 183) [RTS 14/9/2005].
Search terms: Clothing, Cordage, Waist Ornament, Apron, Cord