Angisa

The starched, folded head tie worn with the koto, whose fold carries a message.

The angisa, also called anyisa, is the head tie that Creole women in Suriname wear with the koto. It is a square of cotton, often checked or printed, starched stiff, traditionally with cassava starch, and then folded into a set shape. The stiff pleats stand upright, which makes an angisa recognisable from afar.

Folding is a craft passed on by word of mouth and still taught today. Each fold has a name and a meaning. During slavery, when speaking freely was dangerous, the angisa became a way to say something without words: about a mood, about someone nearby, about an event in the family. There are folds that express a proverb, an odo, and folds that pass on a warning or a piece of life wisdom. One of the best known is called 'let them talk'.

Special moments have their own angisa as well. For the hundredth remembrance of the abolition of slavery in 1963, for example, a special fold was made. Whoever can read an angisa therefore sees more than a head tie: a sentence, a state of mind, a memory.

In dreams an angisa is therefore often read as a message that is not spoken aloud. If you dream of a woman wearing an angisa, the question is what she wanted to make clear without words. An angisa that someone folds for you can be read as care or as preparation for an important moment; an angisa that comes loose or is crumpled, as something that can no longer be said or carried neatly. For many Surinamese readers an angisa in a dream also connects you with the older women in your family. These remain possibilities: what the dream means for you, you or your family know better than an explanation from outside.