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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The 'Long' Dress and the Construction of Herero Identities in Southern Africa
Author:Hendrickson, HildiISNI
Year:1994
Periodical:African Studies
Volume:53
Issue:2
Pages:25-54
Language:English
Geographic terms:Botswana
Namibia
Subjects:Herero
female dress
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00020189408707800
Abstract:This paper investigates the uses and meanings of the 'long' dress among Ovaherero in Namibia and Botswana. Long dress design, construction, and historical development are detailed, and the role of other Africans in the nineteenth-century adoption of the long dress is highlighted. The dress is found to mark women's transition to marriage and motherhood and to symbolize the responsibilities of adulthood and women's acquiescence to them. While physically constraining, and laborious to construct and maintain, the dress celebrates women as engenderers of highly valued, immutable social relationships. In it, women represent Herero society, 'traditionalism', and history within a wider, plural sociopolitical world. The paper is based on fieldwork carried out in Botswana and Namibia during the years 1987, 1988, and 1989. Notes, ref.
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