#10 How to create a Herero Hat

The Herero Hat

You can identify Herero women by their dress code, which consists of this 18th century Victorian style dress and a characteristic hat. In this 10th episode the headman’s wife is going to show us how this traditional hat is created.
The color of the hat often fits the dress as well, which is quite expensive. Despite the heat present, traditional Herero women wear this dress all the time. So it is not something for tourist, what some people might believe. However, there are also women, most likely the younger generation, which consider themselves either Himba or Herero and wear jeans and T-Shirt as well. Oruwandjei is a traditional village and most Herero women here use this traditional style.
More than 100 years ago Herero dressed similar like the Himba today. The Victorian style dress had been introduced by the missionaries because they didn’t liked Herero women to be naked. The hat introduced by the missionaries consisted just of a cloth which was bound in a Dutch manner with the knot positioned at the forehead. Over the time the Dutch style cloth developed in today’s traditional Herero hat, which utilizes a stick. Herero women explained to me that the hat is associated with wealth and the shape has some analogy with regards to the horns of a cow. Cattle breading is an important part of Herero culture too and your wealth is judged by the amount of cattle you poses.