Headrest - Chokwe - Angola and Congo-Kinshasa

African headrests or neck rests.
These objects are often described as supports to protect elaborate hairstyles, hairstyles that often take many hours or even long days to complete.
But the hairstyles are not only adornments: they signify and signal age, gender, and social status to those who know how to read them.
Very often they serve as signs and magical-religious symbols.
The headrest is above all a "dream support." It fosters dreams rich in symbols that will influence the day-to-day life of its owner or of the clan. They can also, as with the Chokwe, serve as a divination instrument. It can also sometimes serve as a small seat.
Other uses may complete this list, varying by tribe.
Among the Somalis, the male neck rests are relatively unstable. This instability helps herders avoid falling into a deep sleep.
The headrest can also play a role in wedding ceremonies; the virgin woman, deflowered, will exchange the neck-rest received on that occasion for a sum of money that will allow her to buy an amber necklace symbolizing her status as a married woman.
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