arm band

Tubular yellow beaded arm band with black, blue and red design with Ligebesha and a larger red bead fastening. Zulu ethnic group.

Glass beads imported from Europe, especially from Venice and Amsterdam, were used throughout Africa and particualry in Southern Africa as currency and adornment for many centuries. Colours of beads have different meanings and the beadwork froms part of the courtship system among the Zulu conveying messages f sorrow, love, anxiety, longing for home etc.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

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