Hat

Descriptions of these high status raffia hats extend back over five centuries, to the earliest accounts of the Portuguese along the coast. Raffia caps were part of the regalia that distinguished rulers in central Africa, particularly among the Kongo and Mbundu peoples in northwest Angola and the western side of the Congo (Zaire) River basin in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and the Republic of Congo. The caps also partook of the sacred and magical power of their owners and were believed to protect the wearers from harm. When a ruler died, an effigy of his hat was created and buried with him. The actual cap was eventually passed on to a successor in the appropriate rituals for transferring regalia.