Portrait of a Zande man
104 x 78 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.A.99
Previous Other Number:
A.I [frame 10] (82)
Accession Number:
1998.341.99
Description:
A portrait of a Zande man (identified as Basukasue) wearing a feathered woollen hat.
He was Evans-Pritchard's first informant on arriving in Zandeland to carry out research.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1927
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
NamedPerson:
Basukasue
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate VIII in E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard's
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
(OUP 1937, facing page 86) with the caption "Basukasue my first informant in Zandeland"
Notes:
Since film numbers A.II & A.III have been attributed to E-P's first fieldwork expedition of 1927, due to the publication of associated material in an article in
Africa
(Vol.1, No.4, 1928), it seems likely that the A.I film precedes them both and is also from this trip.
Further (although only suggestive) evidence is the fact that the film contains portraits of some of E-P's first informants and servants in Zandeland.
[Chris Morton 11/10/2005]
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Clothing Headgear
Documentation:
Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]
Primary Documentation:
PRM Accession Records - [1966.27.21] G PROFESSOR E.
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST.
OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD.
OXFORD - S.
SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE.
Box of negatives in envelopes.
Nos.
1 - 400
Added Accession Book Entry - [In pencil in column] Catalogue room.
[1966.27.23] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of prints in envelopes, nos. 1 - 400 (prints of negatives in 1966.27.21)
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Zande Photographs (E-P)"] - 99. Baskusue [sic]. 82 (AI/10)
Notes on card (rev.) m/s pencil - "N. Baskusue C. Abunduku R. Badindas"
Added Accession Book Entry - [In pencil in column] Catalogue room.
[1966.27.23] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of prints in envelopes, nos. 1 - 400 (prints of negatives in 1966.27.21)
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Zande Photographs (E-P)"] - 99. Baskusue [sic]. 82 (AI/10)
Notes on card (rev.) m/s pencil - "N. Baskusue C. Abunduku R. Badindas"
Other Information:
Historical context - In The Azande (OUP 1971, page 70) E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard notes that 'In sketches by early travellers Azande men are shown wearing straw hats.
Schweinfurth describes them as 'a cylindrical hat without any brim, square at the top and always ornamented with a waving plume of feathers...'.
The same kind of cylindrical, brimless, straw hat was still worn in 1906 ...
[t]his is the old Mbomu hat, called kutuku, and some of the older men still keep to a version of it.' Basukasue's feathered woollen hat is an interesting example of individual play within a tradition.
[Chris Morton 13/10/2003] See also [1998.341.58 & .61] [Chris Morton 10/10/2003]. Archive note - There is no negative for this print, but this is consistent with other images published in Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP, 1937), which seem never to have returned to the collection.
The notes on the reverse of the print denote N.= name; C.= clan.
The abbreviation [R.] is more obscure, but may denote Ruler, i.e.
Badinda.
[Chris Morton 13/10/2003]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 13/10/2003 [Southern Sudan Project]
