By Clemence Tashaya
EENHANA – Waist beads date back to ancient Egypt, where painting of dancers wearing the beads appear on tombs walls, according to a former educationist, historian and now a pensioner here in Ohangwena region.
The tradition has since spread through several continents and centuries to include women in various cultures, including Namibia. According to Meme Paulina Omaholo, this cultural practice is also in the United States of America (USA). Waist beads have a number of different purposes and perhaps even more different styles. She says waist beads can be very simple or incredibly elaborate. Beads can be of any size and material, including glass stone, clay and sandalwood or other material. Some African women add fragrant oil to their beads, Omaholo notes, while mostly the Namibian Oshiwambo women add gems and crystal to add healing properties.
“Most Oshiwambo cultures wear at least two or more strands of waist beads, although an even number of strands brings bad luck in some other cultures in Namibian regions such as the Damara/Nama, Silozi and Tswana tribes according to her. African women have traditionally worn waist beads beneath their clothing, yet other cultures proudly display the beads over their clothes or on bare midriffs.
Waist beads can serve as a symbol of femininity. The beads were an integral part of all African women initiation lodges and ceremonies in the old dynasties, according to the Oshiwambo tradition and culture. Young females began to wear beads when they started to menstruate, marking their passage from girlhood to womanhood. “The beads may have also served as a kind of belt onto which the ‘monthly cloth’ was attached,” Omaholo adds.
In other areas, waist beads are gifts to young women about to marry, according to her. “Women of other regions in Africa wear the beads while pregnant or use the beads in foreplay to entice their husbands as in the Zambezi region here in Namibia and as well as in Malawi, Zambia and other parts of Angola and Zimbabwe. Other starts to wear the beads as young girls after receiving a set as a baby gift.
African folklore gives waist beads special powers, Lungowe Simataa from the Zambezi region says. The beads, worn to define the waist, help hold their shape. They also serve to help women hold onto their mate. Protection is another function of the beads, as they encircle the body and close off the circuits of energy.
“Wearers are thus protected from obsessive thoughts, negative spirits and even vampires,” Simataa adds.
Ornamentation is a major role for waist beads. In the Zambezi region and other cultures in West Africa, the beads served to transform women into “walking charms,” she says. “Since beads were considered money all over Africa, waist beads were both ornamentation as well as dowry in matriarchal societies. Husbands to be would give his bride to be a set of waist beads accompanied by beads for her neck, arms, wrists and ankles.” Throughout parts of the world, Simataa notes, waist beads were worn for aesthetics, largely considered an item of beauty.
Waist beads have a long history in Africa and they have also filtered into other cultures. Belly dancers in Far Eastern cultures have embraced the beads as have women of Islamic cultures. They prominently displayed the beads during their dance while some wore them beneath their clothes. Waist beads are alive and well in the United States of America (USA) also, where they are worn mainly for ornamentation, but can still have any significance the wearer chooses.