1934.8.44

Collection type

Object

Description

Hide back apron with thin ties, edged with small glass beads down one side [RTS 22/6/2004].

Long description

Back apron made from a piece of light yellow hide (Pantone 7508C), the surface largely discoloured a darker brown (Pantone 7533C), with patches of red ochre (Pantone 7524C) and a small piece of resin adhering. The hide has been cut to form a broad back flap with a mostly straight top edge that rises at the centre to form a short triangular peak; the ends of this taper to form two rectangular strips that serve to tie the apron in place around the waist. These strips have been folded over and compressed through use, from a width of around 25 mm to 5 mm. Black animal hair has been left on the surface of the side ties in patches. The side edges of the back apron taper in towards a curved lower edge. One of these sides has been decorated with a band of beadwork, made up from 617 small opaque glass ring or seed beads with convex sides, consisting of 594 white, 18 dark blue (Pantone 281C) and 5 sky blue beads (Pantone 305C), arranged in 149 rows, with four to five beads in each row. The first 18 rows near the top of the apron have columns made up of four white beads with a dark blue bead at the base; there is one similar column with a sky blue bead in place of the dark blue bead. The rest of the columns are made up of white beads, except for one column of four sky blue beads. The beads have been sewn together using fibre thread, possibly cotton, with the thread stitched onto the edge of the hide and then passed up and down each short column of four to five beads, with occasional knots along the outer edge. This stitching appears to have come loose in 2 places. The apron, while largely complete, has numerous damage holes across the surface; a long tear has also been mended locally with fibre thread. The apron is 490 mm long, and 1030 mm wide across the top (including the ties), or 470 mm (back flap only). Two sizes of ring bead have been used; the smaller type, which appears in all three colours, is typically 2.5 mm in diameter and around 1.5 mm thick, while the larger bead, used for white beads only, for the last 41 rows of the band, is 3.5 mm in diameter and 2 mm thick. The hide is less than 1 mm thick [RTS 22/6/2004].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Bahr el Jebel Mongalla

Cultural groups

Bari (Nilotic)

Person

Field collector Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton

Field collector Hannah Powell-Cotton

PRM source Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1933

Date collected

22nd January 1933

Acquisition information

Donated: 1934

Materials and processes

Material Animal Hide Skin, Material Glass, Material Cotton Seed Fibre Yarn Plant, Process Beadwork, Process Strung, Process Stitched, Process Repaired (local)

Dimensions

Length 490 mm, Width 470 mm back flap top, Width 1030 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1934.8.44 Other numbers: 24

Research and responses

The accession book entry implies that the object was collected from the town of Mongalla, rather than from the province of that name; this town is located in the modern administrative district of Bahr el Jebel.

Powell-Cotton gives the Bari name for this object as kaperia, and it is worn at the back - note however that he gives a similar term, kapera, for girl's waist fringe 1934.8.46, so the word may be either incorrect, or only a generic term for this particular set of clothing. For a similar Bari apron, see 1903.2.6.2; this was part of a set worn by women, with back apron and front fringe apron [RTS 6/9/2005].

Search terms: Clothing, Ornament, Bead, Apron, Groin-cover, Waist Ornament