posted on 2023-11-30, 18:57authored byLucas Lowasa
After many days of work, the women begin to sew the pieces of skin together and the abwo and adwel begin to take shape.
Funding
Endangered Material Knowledge Programme
History
Session
C013
Rights owner
Samuel Frederick Derbyshire
Cultural group
Turkana
Participants
Adwer Eturi , Mary Lodungo , Nawoi Esekon
Country
Kenya
Place
Adap, Turkana
Item/object
Abwo and adwel
Techniques of production
Cut-cut, Sewn, worked
Materials
Eleu a akine, Skin-goat skin
Social group setting
Craftspeople working together
Location
Home
Temporality
Work continues on the skins all day, from mid morning to dusk. In total the skins take around two weeks to make. These items of clothing were once worn ubiquitously throughout Turkana, the abwo playing a central role differentiating married from unmarried women. In an akinyonyo ceremony undertaken near to Nadoto (2019LG-02-E001-0001) Louren Engatuny is adorned with an abwo once her ngakoroumwa beads have been dispersed and an alagama metal torc placed around her neck. Historically, a married woman would have continued wearing an abwo in everyday life from this moment onwards. Some women from older generations still wear such skins, but very few. As with many other items of clothing and ornamentation, many argue that the abwo began to radically decline in popularity from around Ekaru Asur (The Fleeing Year, c. 1981).