introductory remarks

As the director of the Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology (Frankfurt, Germany), I consider it a great honour for the institute to participate in an exhibition that has been created in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Äthiopien in Addis Ababa. This is the fourth photo exhibition in Ethiopia in which photographs from our archive have been shown, and this time the topic is particularly relevant to me as an anthropologist, exploring as it does hair or, as the beautiful title of the exhibition reads, The Wax and Gold of Hairstyle in Ethiopia.

From an anthropological point of view, the study of hair offers a particularly versatile approach to comparing and understanding different societies. Hair belongs to us as individuals, but it is always shaped by the norms of the society in which we live. For example, we usually treat our head hair differently from our body hair, and gender ideas almost always play a role in how we style our hair. Our hair marks the boundary between our bodies and the outside world in which we move and participate in other people’s lives. Through the length, colour and style of our hair, we might indicate our social status to others, telling them, for example, whether we are married (or not) or whether we hold certain religious or political offices.

The concrete styles and meanings of hair are subject to changing fashions that people use to distinguish themselves: young from old, men from women, one ethnic group or class from another. This dimension of change is beautifully expressed in the sixty-two photographs that the Frobenius Institute has contributed to the exhibition. Dating from the years between 1934 and 1972, the photos were taken in Southern Ethiopia by former staff members of the institute, including A.E. Jensen, Eike Haberland, Elisabeth Pauli, Ulrich Braukämper, Willy Schulz-Weidner and Werner Lange. They show the range of styles as well as their continuities and changes over time.

This exhibition provides a unique opportunity to show these photos, together with many other documents, in the Addis Ababa Museum. Putting together such an exhibition under the constraints of a pandemic has been particularly challenging, and I am very glad that we succeeded despite the adverse circumstances. For this, I would like to thank all those involved, but especially the curator, Abel Assefa, from the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Sophia Thubauville, anthropologist from the Frobenius Institute, Peter Steigerwald, head of the Frobenius Institute’s photo archive, and Judit Benjamin, who supported the exhibition as an intern. My thanks also go to the Frobenius Society for their generous funding of the printing of the catalogue, and Special thanks are extended to Kay Celtel for the wonderful copy editing. I hope that the artistry and beauty of these hairstyles inspire many interesting insights into the past and present cultural worlds of Southern Ethiopia.