Married woman's apron, made of stiffened canvas decorated with beads in stylized motifs representing the homestead.
(What are the dimensions of this piece? I think it is a pepetu rather than a mapoto. CE.) Young unmarried woman’s stiff front apron constructed of stiffened canvas (?) and possibly leather-backed. A recurrent theme in Ndebele beadwork and murals, the stylized motifs represent the homestead. Such, almost square (approximately 30cm square), aprons are worn by initiated young women. Ndebele beadwork is thought to have begun in the late nineteenth century.
