embroidered hat, unrecorded Hausa-Fulani artist

In northern Nigeria in 1980, a male tailor constructed this Hausa-Fulani cap with white cloth and embroidered it with golden thread. The intricate embroidery covers the hat in diamond and circle motifs that incorporate a series of six-point stars. These stars offer protective power to Muslims, while the cap itself reveals the wearer’s piety and prestige as a Muslim man.

The Islamic faith is an integral part of Hausa-Fulani culture. The Hausa-Fulani people comprise one of the largest cultural groups in West Africa and have lived in the northern part of Nigeria since the founding of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1804. This Islamic empire led to widespread conversion to Islam, transforming many people's ways of life, including their dress. Long associated with Islamic scholars in West Africa, embroidered clothing became an important marker of social status among Muslim men.

Hausa-Fulani men wear caps as part of their daily dress to decorate the head and protect the mind. In their book Crowning Achievements: African Arts of Dressing the Head, authors Mary Jo Arnoldi and Christine Mullen Kreamer write that “the head, high and center, is an ideal site for the aesthetic and symbolic elaboration of the body” (1995: 9). Men’s caps are one of the most visible forms of dress, displaying the wearer’s masculinity and piety, and complementing a man’s voluminous, embroidered strip-woven gown, or riga, and tailored pants.

The embroidered designs on caps also have religious efficacy. The six-point stars reinforce this cap’s symbolic power. In her book Cloth in West African History, Colleen E. Kriger writes that “six-pointed stars were known in Islamic iconography by the name ‘Solomon’s seal,’ and they were thought to endow their owners or wearers with power over terrestrial and supernatural beings” (2006: 102–103). This cap would have protected the wearer from evil spirits and supernatural powers and decorated his head in a stylish and comfortable manner.

Written by Alex Cateforis

Trade connected the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt to the Akan confederation in Ghana, as well as many locations in-between. Along with Islamic beliefs, traders exchanged materials such as brass and silk for gold dust, textiles, and other goods. Asante kings, believing in the sacred power of Islamic prayer and Qur’anic script, collected items such as Mamluk ablutions vessels—containers holding water for ritual cleansing before prayer—for use in Asante traditional religion. Akan artists drew inspiration from the inscriptions and motifs of Islamic trade goods, as well as Akan proverbs, to create the small geometric and figural weights used to measure gold dust. The weights served an important commercial function and were also highly valued for their imported brass material and demonstration of artistry. Similarly linked to trade, men’s embroidery, exemplified on caps worn by Muslim men throughout West Africa, indicates piety and prestige.

Tap the video icon above to watch Nigerian men in the city of Maiduguri discussing and making similar caps.