Waist beads are the prettiest trend you’ll never see.
You might get a peek now and then. As a woman leans over a certain way and the glistening glow of her African waist beads makes a coy cameo appearance.
Waist beads are everywhere but they’re not for show cos they are worn under clothing. The meaning of the colors varies with every tribe — it’s kind of like visual dialects. I was amazed when I met this young lady-Shine who is 8 years with her cousin Albert selling all kids of beads including waist beads and she knew the names of almost all the waist beads she had on display in her grandmothers shop. She was helping her grandmother who had gone to run some errands in a nearby town. Waist beads are for all women — any body type, any race, any background.”
Think of them as colorful strands of femininity — vibrant glass or clay beads, gemstones, pieces of horn, shells and sometimes gold or silver fittings, strung together by hand and tailored to embrace a woman’s individual midsection.
Yet they’re more than just pretty baubles. The hues — and the reasons for wearing them — bear myriad meanings, a mystery and folklore.
The Drifting Photographer 