IDNO

P.57268.RDG

Description

Full-length studio portrait of three Gikuyu men in warrior clothing and holding spears and decoratively painted shields. The man in the centre wears a headdress with feather decorations, and beaded strands around the forehead, while the other two men having their hair braided and anointed with ochre. All three wear cloths toga-style, and have numerous beaded neck ornaments, and strands of beads across the torso, metal arm ornaments with two upright projections, and metal bands on the arms, wrists, and legs. The studio backdrop is painted with a European style forest.

Place

E Africa; Kenya; Eastern Province

Cultural Affliation

Kamba [historically Akamba]; Agikuyu [historically Gikuyu; Kikuyu]

Named Person

Photographer

Young, William D. [Photograph Studio]

Collector / Expedition

Ridgeway, William

Date

circa 1890 - 1920

Collection Name

Ridgeway Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.57261.RDG to P.57273.RDG were found in C274/2/ which came from C274/. The latter was kept in Wooden Drawer VI.

Place: Entry previously record ‘Kamba’ as place but research shows that the term applies to a cultural group. The two fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 4/10/2006]

Group: The Kamba (Mukamba in singular Akamba in the plural) are a Bantu ethnic group who live in the semi-arid Eastern Province of Kenya stretching east from Nairobi to Tsavo and north up to Embu, Kenya. This land is called Ukamba or land of the Akamba. Depending on the source, they are either the third or the fifth largest ethnic group in Kenya. They speak the Kikamba language. [Source: Ethnologue Online 15th Edition, JD 4/10/2006]

Group: Kikuyu is an alternative name for the group Gikuyu, which live in the west Central Province of Kenya. [Source: Ethnologue Online 15th Edition, JD 19/6/2007]

Biographical Information: See Biographies file for information on William D. Young. [JD 14/6/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [JD 2/7/2007]


Publication: The photograph has been digitised for the European Collected Library of Artistic Performance (ECLAP) and is accessible on the portal http://www.eclap.eu/drupal/. [SG 30/10/2012]