CHIEF EBONG

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1928, Page 7

CHIEF EBONG

AX IMPERISHABLE COIFFURE. (From Sir Percival Phillips.) NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct, 20. Mis name is Ebong, and he is chief <if a tril)o in the Turkana country, where the frontiers of Kenya. Abyssinia, and the Sudan meet. 1 was first attracted to him in the camp of th Chiefs and Councillors by the strange and imperishable appearance ol his coiffure. At the hack of his skull was an enormous fan-shaped “bun,” larger tie that of any mid-Victorian charwoman, and apparently the clidf-d’oeuvre ol a primitive carver in grey stone. There was never a eotfnre I ike it west ol Port Said. “Oh. that?” replied the camp commandant.. “That is his grandfather's hair, and probably that ol his father and great-grandfather as well.” And he shouted to Ebong to join us. PATTING THE BUN. Ehoug grinned bashfully under my scrutiny, hut no duke could have shown greater pride in displaying his ancestral treasures. He patted his )>nn and replied genially to my interpreted questions. Yes, it was his tint tier’s and grandfather’s hair. The people of his tribe thus remembered their forebears. There were nntuy buns of a vintage in the Turkana country. The ingredients of some dated hack a hundred years. The older the larger. Ebong honoured his inherited hair by packing it in a tight mass and plastering it with volcanic dust, which gave if the appearance of being petrified. The memorial design or mausoleum thus evolved was decorated with a single silver of or.vx horn. It was permanent. More than that, it looked waterproof and capable ol surviving all the vicissitudes of inter-tribal warfare. BING OK IVORY IN HIS UP. Scores of other personalities every whit as interesting are to he found in this camp of Chiefs and Councillors. 1 select Ebong at random. Let, us investigate him farther and you will realise what a wonderful collection ol types, traits, and social customs of halrharie Africa had been assembled here—for the first time in history—in honour of tin* Prince of Wales. Ebong is an aristocrat. He walks abroad with a long staff, the equivalent of a royal sceptre, which is surmounted by a brass cap and crown. It was given him in the days of Sir Percy Girouard’s administration of East Africa. This stall’ and his ilamily hair are his two most cherished possessions. He would easily attract attention in Bond street—even at Geneva. His thin, intelligent face, the colour of coffee grounds, is decorated with a little tuft of heard or goatee on his chin, above which dangles a ring of ivory inserted in Ids lower lip. When he talks the ring dangles in a vivacious way. He wears plain discs of tin in his ears, and a kind oi breastplate of beads in five colours across bis naked chest. His only garment is a strip ol red and white calico tastefully draped around Ids middle and falling to his knees. Leather sandals and armlets of linked heads complete his ceremonial garb. Ebong’s people are untouched hv civilisation. Only two of his 20 lollowcrs ever saw a railway train before coming to Nairobi. A. town with shops and telephones is to them another undreamed-of manifestation ol the white man’s magic. To see them bargaining in the Regent street of Nairobi was a sight worth remembering. RUN ON ’GINGER BEER. I’or generations Ebong and Ids people have subsisted on a simple diet of meat and of blood mixed with new milk. Since coining to Nairobi they have abandoned ibis menu lor otic oi bread and ginger beer. Ebong’s eliici pre-occupation at present is how to arrange lor a regular ginger beer supply in Ids own country.