International Journal of Art and Art History

Continuity and Discontinuity of the Mau Ogiek People’s Indigenous Dress, Nessuit Location, Nakuru County, Kenya
Njeru Sophia, PhD

Abstract
The Mau Ogiek people are an ethnic minority forest-dwelling hunters and gatherers who inhabit and claim the Mau Forest Complex in Kenya their ancestral land. The people wear their indigenous dress to date. This paper discusses the factors that occasion the continuity and discontinuity of the people’s ethnic dress. The continuity of the dress is influenced by clothing customs, values, cultural gatherings, raw materials and economic purpose. Value for ethnic identity dictates that hyrax skin remains the most important material employed in constructing cloaks, honey bags and headdress. Culture contact, technological advances, creativity, government decree, cultural authentication and abandonment of rituals and beliefs occasioned discontinuity of the dress. Due to cultural contact with the Maasai people, cowhide has replaced male bushbuck skin in constructing women’s belts. In conclusion, the discontinuity of ethnic African dress is not only influenced by the western culture as it is widely believed. Rather, the discontinuity may be occasioned by diverse factors internal and external to the people. The continuity of the dress provides the Mau Ogiek with ownership of their culture and ethnic identity for posterity. Further, the dress creates a cross-cultural adaptation of theories and practices of dress to an African ethnic group.

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