Kirdi Cache-sexe

What is a cache sexe?

•A beaded pubic covering

•Used in many ceremonies

•From the Kirdi people from Northern Cameroon

•Materials: cotton, glass beads, cowrie shells

Who are the Kirdi?

•The word Kirdi is used by their Muslim neighbours

•It was applied to non- Muslims

•It is a pejorative term  (meaning non-believer)

•The Kirdi are an animalist people who live in barren hills in N Cameroon and eastern Nigeria

History

•Beads are one of the earliest forms of human craft

•The first beads from Africa date from 10,000 BC

•Beads are among the earliest forms of abstract thinking

•The act of simultaneously concealing and revealing is a core idea in African culture

•

•Hali- carpet and textile art- issue 162, winter 2009

Context

•Other cultures also use cache sexe•For example the Iraqi tribe from Iraq (Jane Lightfoot, curator and collector)•The Sporran (a male cache sex from Scotland)•Many other cultures use beadwork for important cultural purposes

Why?

•I am interested in how I (as a Southern Cameroonian Christian) see this object

•I am also interested in how “we” (as a multi-cultural society) see this object

•Can we understand this important cultural object today?