Tribal beadwork from Africa. Asia and hte Pacific is a fascinating way to explore the world and its cultures while you build a collection of beautiful hand-crafted objects.

If you live in the USA, you are surrounded by superb Native American beadwork, which is very popular with collectors and extremely beautiful. But for those of us who love its intricacy and beauty, the world of beads is a lot bigger than North America.

Africa can easly rival the USA for the variety, complexity and sheer number of great beadwork pieces produced, and  there are many more  fascinating and sometimes rare examples from
faraway  places such as Borneo, Timor, Uzbekistan, India and Turkey.



This photograph shows a rear view of twoXhosa men dressed for a tribal dance. Their beadwork is also very elaborate and plentiful, but much more restrained, especially in color, and they wear the straight cotton cloth kilt of an adult man decorated with black braid appliques. Adult female dress is very similar, but maried women wear a very full cotton skirt which is cut on the bias, and cover their breasts with a cloth apron tied around the neck.


Each South African tribe has its own distinct traditional dress and beadwork, and if you know the "code" you can immediately identify the tribe (and sometimes the sub-tribe), age, sex and marital status of the person wearing the beadwork For example, the apron above with the five beaded panels at the bottom is called a jogolo, and is the wedding apron of the Ndebele tribe, who are famous for painting thiir houses in geometric designs. In fact, the patterns on their hosues inspire the design of their beadwork. The jogolo is unique to the Ndebele and only worn by married women on special occiasions.

Of course, the most famous tribe in South Africa are the Zulu, thanks to the well known 19th century chief, Shaka, the black Napoleon who united many scattered tribes into the Zulu nation. Zulu beadwork is just as rigidly classified by age, sex and district as that of any other South African tribe. Unmarried Zulu girls traditionally wear very little, but married women always wear the black leather kilt of marriage and an elaborate  mushroom-shaped read head dress made of their own hair, or of cotton. Some Zulu women wear a headband around this head dress which immediatley tells you if they have had children or not.
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Leaving South africa for East Africa, we discover the superb beadwork of the Maasai of Kneya, nomadic warriors and cattle herders. The Maasai are famous for their wide, stiff beaded collars, ear rings, belts and other body ornaments, usually beaded directly onto thick rawhide.Shown above is a traditional young warrior's belt.



If you decide to collect tribal beadwork, you will find it easier to build up a strong collection if you collect a single tribe, such as the Zulu or the Maasai , or a single type of beadwork,  such as this collection of colorful Zulu Mbenge or beaded basketwork lids for clay beerpots. I must admit I have never been disciplined enough to do this, and I tend to buy whatever beadwork grabs my imagination -  it is all hand worked and all beautiful.



India is a vast continenet, but only one small area is famous for its beadwork, the old kingdom of Saurashtra, now known as the modern city of Kutch.  This is a pair of cloth covers for the horns of a bullock drawing the festive wedding card which are embroidered all over with beads, including charming animals and birds.


South East Asia is also famous for its beautiful beadwork, particularly the old head huting tribes of Borneo, Nagaland and the Philippines. This photograph shows a stunning beaded Dayak baby carrier which slips onto the mother's back like a back pack.The motifs  are intended to protect the baby form being harmed by evil spirits.


From the fierce Naga of theBurmese-Indian border, this double beaded tassel is worn by men and hangs down from the belt on the  hip. In addition to the beadwork, it is decorated wiht red-dyed goat hair.


Indonesia is a vast archipelago, and each island boasts its own culture. These elbarately beaded food covers are made by the Batak people of Sumatra, who also make   beaded bamboo lime tubes to carry the crushed lime which  is an ingredient in betel nut chews.


Parts of New Guinea such as the Admiralty Islands are also famous for their fine beadwork.
Body adornments like these armbands would once have been beaded in tiny hand ground shell diks dyed black and red, today colorful glass beads are preferred, b ut the patterns are trditional.


And finally, the beadwork of Central Asia, where not surprisingly. many of the tribes that  famous for their hand woven rug  designs, also excel in beautiful beadwork, such as this  Uzbek belt or apron and an elaborate beaded tassel made to adorn a tent or a camel saddle.

If you find this introduction interesting, please visit the tribalartbrokers.net web site, where you will find many more examples arranged by geographical location or tribe.