Ethiopian women have their own unique traditional hairstyle called Shuruba in Amharic. Nowadays, particularly women in urban areas use Shuruba during the rainy season to protect their hair. But in rural areas, this cultural hairstyle is still intact.
Even though modern hairstyle can be seen in many cities and towns across the country, women still attach to the thousands of year old traditional hairstyle during festivities. Women and girls decorate their hair using shuruba in various styles or designs, especially in the holiday season like Ashendiye/Shadey/Solel (different parts of Amhara) and Ashenda (in Tigray).
These similar celebrations with different names are celebrated by a group of girls in rural areas and since recently by young women in urban areas in northern Amhara and Tigray region. The unique festival which takes place in August marks the ending of two-week-long fasting known as Filseta in commemoration of the Dormition and Assumption of Saint Mary.
Girls wear colorful dresses and use different shuruba styles while dancing in a circle which is called Ashenedye during the festivity. Ashenda means the “tall green grass”, estimated at around 80 up to 90 cm minimum height that girls wear around their waists during the holiday. In the tradition of this religious festival, blades of grass are strewn on the floors of homes and shops as a kind of welcome mat.
According to various sources, during Ashenda, the young girls and women go to great lengths, including long-distance commute, to collect the tall grass mostly from banks of rivers, swamps, and wetlands, where the Ashenda grows in plenty. The collected grasses are then distributed evenly among the young girls and women and they wear it on top of their cloth, in such a way to colorfully blend with their attire but also to intentionally cover their waist and buttocks, according to Tigray online.
According to Africa Feminism, the attire is taken very seriously, women prepare their outfits for weeks, and family and neighbors ensure that all young women have the appropriate clothing and no one feels left out. The research studied by Mebrahten Gebremariam under titled “media and culture” in 2011 stated that when Ashenda approaches, girls make all necessary preparations both psychologically and materially. In this regard, parents and elder brothers and sisters play a great role in identifying and fulfilling the preconditions for the girls.
This includes buying new cloth and shoes, hairdressing, preparing a drum, bringing the Ashenda leaf from a field where it naturally grows, and tie it with a rope in a fashionable pattern, and allowing them a free time to play, finally. For Ashenda girls give due emphasis to their dressing style, hairstyle and crosses tied on the neck, traditional lead Kul put on their eyelids and eyebrow and other beautifying objects, the research result stated.
Many women, describe Ashenda as three days of freedom. An Ashenda girl is not asked where she is going. When will she be back? She is told to perform, dress and express herself,
The women also wear uniform traditional cloth known as Tifitf in Amhara and Tilfi in Tigrayan. The Tigrayan women’s hairstyle generally known as Quno but it comes in different modes known as Difin, Gilbich, and Ga’me. And the Amhara women’s or girls’ hairstyles also know as Game and kuncho, Defene are the most popular styles.
Amhara and Tigrian women’s or girls’ hairstyles, dressing, jewelry, and earrings are slightly similar, but their Kulor kuhli (organic makeup for their eye lashes) and Gobagub (necklace) are the same.
Women in Tigrai might use Variety of hairstyles based on their age and marital status. Young girls shave their hair on the side of their head leaving some hair at the back of the head and around the head. The shaved part slowly closes over the years, by the time a young lady is married and have a kid she officially enters womanhood and she wears the fully braided hairdo. There are many styles of braiding from the very fine called gilbich to a course one called albaso.
All the hairdo styles show the most amazing artistic skills of the people developed for ages.
The Ethiopian Herald August 15, 2019
BY ESSEYE MENGISTE
