In our celebration of Black History Month, we’ve taken a look at the pastoral clothing of the Karamojong tribe of Uganda in Central Africa; we’ve also studied the boubou, a sort of kaftan worn in many countries of West Africa.

Now it’s time to learn about the gele, a head scarf or head tie, commonly worn in Nigeria, the most populous country in modern times on the African continent.

As I mentioned in my last story on this topic, while coming home from a family vacation to Paris, I met two finely-dressed ladies from Senegal, and they were wearing elaborate head wraps, similar to the gele. It’s this encounter that sparked my curiosity for today’s research project.

My research took me to places all across Africa, where the head-tie is given various names. “There are varying traditional names for headties in different countries, which include: gele (Nigeria), duku (Malawi, Ghana), dhuku (Zimbabwe), tukwi (Botswana), doek (South Africa, Namibia) and tignon (United States).”

But today’s blog post isn’t just a study of modern-day fashion accessories. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been delving into the history of African fashion because it’s part of the history of African Americans.

In my quest to learn more about Black history, I wanted to know where these head ties or head wraps came from, what they are called, and furthermore, it would be interesting to hypothesize about how these hair-tie accessories may have shaped fashion in the modern era, in America.

So I looked back through history, at African Americans from a bygone era. And when I say look, I really mean that I extensively researched this topic through multiple sources. I wanted to know if there was any fashion-history connection between modern Americans’ head ties/head scarves and the gele (as well as its international counterparts).

As a school librarian, I’m very familiar with the Library of Congress. Did you know that the LOC houses more than just books?

In fact, they have a whole collection of images that are free for anyone to access. I recently used the “Prints and Photographs Division” section of the library to search for images of enslaved African Americans wearing head ties, and guess what I found…

In the Library of Congress’s collection, there are numerous images of women wearing various scarves tied around their heads, usually in the form of a large handkerchief wrapped around the hair.

But some look as fancy as the modern gele. If you zoom in on this daguerreotype of Ms. Mary Brice (Bryce?), you’ll see that her hair tie has an elegant flow of fabric wrapped delicately around her head and tied in an elegant bow at the top, somewhat like the styling of the colorful gele worn today by the women of modern-day Nigeria.

Are these head-tie accessories somehow related? Could they, perhaps, have a common ancestor in West African history?

The gele is traditionally made from a somewhat stiff fabric, according to Wikipedia. “Although the gele can be worn for day-to-day activities, the elaborate ceremonial ones are worn to weddings, special events, and church activities. It is usually made of a material that is firmer than regular cloth.”

It seems like enslaved African American women were wearing the more every-day version of the head tie, as noted above as being worn “for day-to-day activities.” At least, the images I found on the Library of Congress site seem to indicate that these were working, enslaved women.

But I’m guessing the concept of wearing some sort of fabric accessory, wrapped around the hair, is a tradition that harkens back to the earliest versions of hair ties, back in Africa.

Perhaps these weren’t a gele, like we see in Nigeria today, but a great-great-great grandmother of the gele. I’m hypothesizing liberally here, but I think I may be on to something.

The modern gele has taken on a very 21st century fashion accessory identity of its own. In fact, people today can purchase one that doesn’t require any wrapping or tying. “Gele may also nowadays be designed in ready to wear styles called ‘Auto-Gele’ which are purchased to avoid the need to tie the Gele.”

So even today, we see the gele evolving in Africa, but is it also evolving in America?

If you look back at American fashions of the 1950’s and early 1960’s, American women wore scarves or thin-fabric handkerchiefs over their heads as part of a fashion statement that was popular at the time. This was the era of the early stages of the Civil Rights movement.

I remember my mom bringing a scarf to the beach (where it’s windy) and wearing it over her hair with sunglasses, in the early 1970’s, so again, I wonder how the historical accessory of a head tie may have shaped American women’s interest in scarves as hair-covering accessories.

According to Nikki Brown, a reporter for Essence, “Black women have been wearing headwraps for eons, but it seems the coveted cover-up is Hollywood’s new must-have accessory.” She goes on to explain that superstar musician Beyonce is in the forefront of this trend, inspiring “A-listers [to wrap] their hair in fabrics for high profile events.”

This isn’t the same scarf my mom once wore to keep her hair from getting messy in the wind. Ms. Brown is talking about a high-profile, elegant hair accessory that very likely shares its roots with the modern gele of West Africa.

I’ve seen my youngest daughter wearing a hair tie like Beyonce’s, and as an art history major at Idaho State University, she’s hyper-aware of what’s in fashion.

Today you can buy head wraps, bandies, headbands, turbans, scrunchies, and various styles of hats from American companies like The Wrap Life. This company’s website includes 14 pages of tutorial videos, showing modern women how to wrap their hair accessories, to achieve the look they’re going for.

So yes, the hair-tie/hair wrap, as a fashion accessory, appears to be evolving in America, just as it has evolved overseas, and wow! What a way to bridge the gap between the continents in style!

Am I trying too hard to connect the dots, folks? What do you think? When it comes to African American and African history, how far back do you think this fashion accessory goes? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Sources:

Brown, Nikki. “We Need To Talk About Beyoncé’s Glorious Golden Headwrap.” Essence, ESSENCE Communications, Inc. 6 Dec. 2020. Web. Accessed 25 Jan. 2024.

Editor. “Angele Etoundi Essamba’s Photo Series ‘Noire Vermeer’ Takes a Fresh Look at the Dutch Painter Jan Vermeer.” Africa.com. 19 Feb. 2023. Web. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.

Forbes, Edwin, 1839-1895 (artist). “Spotsylvania C[ourt] H[ouse], Va.” Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. Accessed 22 Jan. 2024. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004661883/

Gibbs, Peter E (photographer). “[Mary Brice (or Bryce) of Point of Honor, Lynchburg, Virginia, half-length portrait, seated, of middle-aged African American enslaved woman].” Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC. Accessed 22 Jan. 2024. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649200/

No Author. “The Gele — Explainer.” CIAFA [https://www.ciafe.org/post/the-gele-explainer]. 16 Dec. 2022. Web. Accessed 21 Jan. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors.” Gele (head tie).” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Dec. 2023. Web. 21 Jan. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. “Head tie.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Oct. 2023. Web. 21 Jan. 2024.

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