Why Mangbetu Women Elongated Their Heads: The Art and Pride of Lipombo

Profile of a Mangbetu woman showing lipombo head shape and cultural hairstyle. Disclaimer: This image is AI-generated for illustrative purposes and does not depict real people or events directly. When European explorers came to the Mangbetu region in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the 1800s, they were surprised. Upon seeing the Mangbetu women, they noticed that most of them had long and stretched heads. The Europeans misunderstood this. Some of them thought it was abnormal and wrote many stories about it. They took some photos of Mangbetu women in order to show the world something they had never seen before. These images appeared in magazines, books, and museums in Europe. For the Mangbetu, lipombo was something to be proud of. It was not an evil custom, it was their respected tradition. It showed their beauty, identity, creativity, and cultural pride. It was their way of telling the world, “This is who we are.” How Did They Do It? When a ...