Jewelry has been a cornerstone of human culture for centuries, with each civilization leaving its unique mark on the art of adornment. When it comes to jewelry, Africa has a rich and diverse history that cannot be summed up singularly. African jewelry dates back thousands of years, with the oldest known examples being shell beads discovered in a cave in South Africa, believed to be about 75,000 years old.
Tribal African jewelry was made from natural materials such as ivory, amber, bone, wood, shells, metal, hair, and stone. These various materials were fashioned into necklaces, waist chains, bracelets, ankle chains, and head adornments.
The jewelry of Africa is not just ornamental. For each group, rituals and religion play a major part in the adornment of jewelry. Each piece is represented and worn for a particular reason, ranging from aesthetics to identifying marks of a society or group. The climate also has a lot to do with the materials used to make the jewelry.
Tribal jewelry in West Africa was traditionally used to tell a story. Depending on the culture and times, jewelry has been appreciated as a status symbol or designated as a cultural affiliation. Jewelry was also commonly used to convey individual status. Certain stones were reserved only for chiefs and other royal figures. Those who knew how to keep secrets used certain gemstone juxtapositions to relay coded messages.
In some tribes and communities, jewelry also had practical use. Amulets and talismans were also common among various tribes and communities for spiritual and religious purposes, many of which were believed to give positive energy to the wearer, while other pieces of jewelry blocked evil juju. Jewelry was also used to store/transport precious metals like gold.
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In a traditional sense, African jewelry was worn on the neck, waist, ears, arms, legs, and toes. Jewelry was also worn in the hair and was often pierced, strapped, or sewn onto garments. Popular looks included earrings, nose rings, headdresses, headbands, clasps, corsets, anklets, and more.
Materials used for jewelry depended on what was available locally although trade systems were in place that allowed for outside influence. Nigeria provides one example, utilizing a lost method of bronze casting which was developed by the Yoruba (13th century). To this day, Southern and Eastern Africa have more open cultures in the sense that inhabitants can wear beaded accessories. However, in Yoruba culture, jewelry remains confined to rulers.
Ivory Coast jewelry was created from distinct inspiration. Artisans crafted jewelry that depicted local animals. Wrought iron was used to craft Senufo bracelets that resembled sacred pythons. The Ashanti community fashioned helmets made from stiffened hides, decorated with wood adornments and often gold leaves.
Senegalese goldsmiths reached particular heights in their craft, becoming experts in gold manipulation, their creations a fusion of African and European influences. Africa contributed greatly to our rich history of jewelry and accessorizing.
African beaded jewellery is not just a piece of adornment. It’s so much more than that. Beads are integral to the traditions of many tribes across the continent. If you live here, then you probably see African beaded jewellery and beadwork in many different forms when you visit a local market or while encountering different tribes. But have you ever wondered what these beads symbolise?
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Beads vary in material (bone, glass, horn, seeds, shells, stones and fossilised materials), their significance, colour, size, and their placement on the body or clothing. All these denote and evoke different meanings in different tribes. They have also been used as a form of currency.
Trade beads can be dated as far as the 15th century, when European trading ships would travel to West Africa to draw on resources such as gold, ivory, palm oil and slaves.
Specific Tribes and Their Jewelry Traditions
Let's delve into the specific jewelry traditions of several African tribes:
The Maasai
The period was the 1800s. The place was the flat green plains of the Serengeti - a natural stretch of green lawn where some of the greatest animal migrations take place every year - in East Africa. The people were the Masai, and the first English colonists had just come across them in their natural habitat. Like the animals of the East African plains, the Masai migrate, too, moving with the changing seasons. They follow the clouds, schlepping their cattle along the Great Rift Valley looking for water and pasture. In the highlands there was fog and cold; the mornings were always white and implacable. But in those highlands, the Masai are at home with the world. There are very few immaculately preserved cultures in Africa like the Masai.
Intricate jewelry is a feature of Masai culture, evidence of accomplished craftsmanship and entrenched notions of beauty. Typical Masai fashion is often assessoried with heavy jewelries: necklaces, anklets and bangles; they usually also indicate wealth and social standing, totem or clan. In most instances, the earlobes are pierced in many places and beaded ornaments strung - sometimes rather precariously - on them.
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The Maasai, Samburu, Turkana, and Rendille tribes are highly associated with beadwork in Kenya. They can be found in Kenya’s northern Great Rift Valley. The women in these tribes wear these beaded pieces as a sign of wealth, marital status, health and to denote the number of children they have. For instance, if a woman’s first child is a boy, she wears many earrings. The same applies for women with several male children. Similarly, traditional wedding collars have several beaded strands hanging off them. Women wear these pieces as a sign of beauty and wealth while men wear beaded pieces and different symbols on different parts of their bodies to mark their achievements.
To girls, a crimson collar of beads is given to her by her father which indicates that a husband has already been chosen for her, but she is not yet engaged.
The red colour which is found in almost all Masai apparels is supposed to be a representation of the Masai supreme deity, Nkai, who has a dual nature, represented by two colours: Nkai Narok (Black God) and Nkai Na-nyokie (Red God). Nkai Narok is said to be benevolent, while Nkai Na-nyokie is vengeful. The Masai are a people conscious of how close blood is to all human endeavours and how everything works in duality. The major totems of the Masai tribe are represented as Red Cow and Black Cow. The corresponding presence of the colour is evident in circumcision rites, when the new initiates go about clad in black for weeks. Each colour, with its distinct tribal symbols, is represented in the ethnic jewelry. The jewelry are thus the people’s expression of their heritage.
White portrays the colour of milk from cows which provides nourishment. Orange represents the colour of the gourds that store milk which is shared with guests, as well as animal skins which are laid out as beds.
What Is The Significance Of Maasai Jewelry? - African Roots And Routes
The Dinka
The Dinka people of South Sudan are of similar Nilotic origin to the Masai, their single most visible feature being their gigantic heights. The Dinka have been called the tallest people in the world. Their culture projects a multi-faceted use of jewelry. The use of jewelry among the Dinka is a manifest striving for a kind of showy beauty in the brass and bead ornaments. The complex beadwork of the Dinka is not limited to necklaces, bracelets and anklets but includes trinkets, corsets, headgear, and garments of various shapes and sizes. The bead ornaments are not used to enhance the beauty of the human body, but they are expressions of beauty themselves and, in the culture, they embody a tribal worldview of beauty and maturity.
The Zulu and Xhosa
Among the Zulu and the Xhosa of Southern Africa, jewelry is a colourful, flamboyant affair. These are cultures that are blatant with their expression of beauty. The Zulus decorate everything around them - from houses to humans - with bead ornaments. Their bead jewelry has elaborate colour motifs and geometric patterns. In many instances, the Zulu jewelry is highly symbolic. They are worn by wealthy individuals and are used as amulets and protective garments in war. During courting among young people, a maiden presents her betrothed with a beaded necklace known as “ibheqe” and keeps a similar one for herself. The ibheqe is then used to pass messages between the lovers, with the messages coyly embedded in the coloured patterns. It is a complex bead language in which pattern, colour hue, and colour position, communicate meanings. For example, red (depending on the hue) can mean intense longing or anger. Blue means something along the lines of: “I am unhappy. You have abandoned me. When will you come back?” Among the Zulu, the ibheqe is not the jewellery that shows formal engagement.
Xhosa ornaments are beads made from glass, wood, metal, bones, sea shells, precious stones, and other similar objects which are then strung together on a tread. Although it often represents similar symbols as the Zulu bead jewelry, Xhosa beadwork seems more expressive with tangible images such as trees and geometric lines patterned into them.
The Ashanti
One of the most flamboyant ethnic jewelry can be found among the Ashanti of Ghana, a culture known for their gold. Rich gold ornaments and jewelry adorn the body and garments of the wealthy during public events. Gold signifies everything that the Ashanti hold dear: their matrilineal heritage, royalty, authority, and wealth.
Modern Interpretations and Globalization
In the modern times, these ornaments are relentlessly sold to tourists. Modern jewelry wearers are simpler. Globalisation also seems to have standardised designs and practices, although of course there are still interesting people with multiple piercings all over their body. For the most part we know the uses of most of our jewelry. The wedding band for example, in all its simplicity, represents the eternal bond of matrimony between two people. Previous periods of modern history exact a more puritan use of jewelry - thin necklaces and finger rings and earrings - but in a more liberal world, there seems to be movements towards recalling some of the baroque ornamentations of the past.
Movies and social media have made more people aware - and certainly appreciative - of jewelry of other cultures. Thus we have now begun to see an increase in the wearing of nose rings and waist rings, where there was little previously. The movement towards a fusion of artistic expressions from around the world is perhaps a recognition of a more universal world, where even items in remote locations are only a click away.
African jewelry designers such as the South African company, Lashongwe, have found new ways to merge elements of Zulu ethnic jewelry and western designs. Other designers across the world have incorporated motifs from African cultures; European designers are constantly accused of stealing African traditional cloth patterns - Beyonce suffers the same relentless accusations for her Africa-themed outfits and jewelry, the cowrie shell dress in her “Spirit” music video being an example - which has been criticised in certain quarters as an instance of cultural appropriation.
Whether Western or African, modern designers are artists with the freedom to explore their artistic sensibilities in minimalist or maximalist creations. In our thoroughly globalised world (the age of television, mobile phone, and social media), there is a hankering towards artistic expressions that fuse versions of cultural practices around the world.
But is there a visible agenda behind these? If there is anything to say for it, it is that, apart from specific tribal symbols, the basic reason people wear jewelry has not changed over the years. It is still, at its most basic point, a question of beauty, status symbol, and wealth.
Next time you buy African inspired jewellery you’ll be well equipped to share the meaning behind the colours. Check out our exclusive range of statement African inspired jewellery here.
| Tribe | Materials Used | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Maasai | Beads (glass, seeds), wire | Wealth, marital status, number of children, tribal identity |
| Zulu | Glass beads, thread | Communication (ibheqe necklaces), status, protection |
| Ashanti | Gold | Royalty, authority, wealth, matrilineal heritage |
| Dinka | Brass, beads | Beauty, maturity, tribal worldview |
