Pende chief wearing traditional bicorn headdress, Kakabola village, Congo (Democratic Republic)

"An exuberance of beaded splendor is conveyed in the rather baroque treatment of the bicorn chief's headdress made by the Pende of Zaire. The headdress shape conforms to Pende stylistic conventions: the bicorn headdress is said to allude to the strength and power of the buffalo in a reference to the associated powers of chieftancy. Among the Pende these headdresses are called misango mapende. The form is said to have originated in the Lunda chiefdom. According to Bourgeois, the headdresses are common not only to the Pende, but since the 1940s Yaka and Suku chiefs have purchased this type of beaded headdress from their Pende neighbors." [Kreamer C. M., 1995 : Spectacular Hats for Special Occasions, Crowning Achievements. Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, L.A.]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from early March 1951 to July 1951.