Name of Object:

Boots

Location:

Madrid, Spain

Holding Institution:

National Museum of Anthropology

 About National Museum of Anthropology, Madrid

Holding Institution (original language):

Museo Nacional de Antropología

Date of Object:

20th century

Inventory Number:

MNA4272

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Leather; tanned, dyed

Dimensions:

97 x 25 cm

Description:

Men’s leather riding boots. The applications of leather in different colours, with representation of geometric patterns, follow the customs and superstitions of the Hausa. The Hausa possessed, in every community, workshops for producing and dyeing articles of leather, though the most out-standing locations are those of Kano and Sokoto in Nigeria; places producing, since the medieval times, the thinnest skins used in Europe. The skins are those of goat, preferably of the males, and the dye receives the local name of bagaruwa. This product is usually processed by women, and it is also used for treating dysentery. The products of the Hausa are distributed, by trade, across wide zones of the Sahel and Subsaharian Africa.

Citation of this web page:

"Boots" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;es;4;en

Copyedited by: Anne Dowell

MWNF Working Number: SP 004