Waist Beads

Unlike a necklace or a bracelet, waist beads attract and evoke deep emotional responses within us. Today they are seen as a tasteful and fashionable accessory; however some people still maintain cultural and superstitious beliefs about them. Waist beads originated in Africa where traditionally they were symbolic of Mother Nature's initiation of a young girl. In some parts of Africa, the waist beads are made of fragrant materials like sandalwood and are anointed in oils.

In other parts of Africa and the Diaspora, women wear waistbeads for their own personal pleasure. Some shaman women add crystals and gemstones to facilitate healing by the properties of the particular stones.

Zulu women wear their waist beads to perfection!

Beads played a huge part in marking the stages of a woman's life in Africa. When a young girl reached puberty, this was a time for celebration; a time to marry and bear children. She would make a skirt from beads which was meant to adorn and attract possible suitors. Even after the girl was married, she would wear a string of beads around her waist, which she would 'rattle' for her husband's attentions. These strings of beads stand for femininity, sexual attractiveness and woman power, status and role. Treasuring them is respecting one of Zambia’s most prestigious cultural traditions and tribal sense of status and identity. In Zambia, if a woman wore the string of waist beads around her neck, she was perceived as having loose morals.