Headwear, in many societies , has been associated with status or position whether ancient, ethnographic or modern.
I, too, am amazed that the author so readily suggested a 'colonial' influence.....stating the possibility of the hat being a 'flat cap' (in Britain associated with the 'working class').
To my mind...if these carvings are a humorous attempt to saterise the colonial 'insergents' then surely it would be aimed at the military or the 'ruling classes' of that particular country.
If the author is correct in his 'interpretation' then, I suppose the hat could be a military 'beret' further sybolised by the percussion cap top. However, in the British Army the beret was introduced in the 1920's (I'm not certain as to other countries) and the idea seems very unlikely.
'The French beret was introduced in 1924 as the distinctive headdress of the Royal Tank Corps. Other armoured regiments followed, but the beret was not adopted by the army, as a whole, until 1943, although there were some exceptions. At first, the majority of the army was issued with the dark blue beret, but certain regiments and corps which had adopted a distinctively coloured beret before 1943 were allowed to keep that colour. Since then, more colours have been adopted by regiments and corps as a way to commemorate associations or just to be - regimental! '
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