The story of jewelry in Africa dates back to over 40,000 years ago, sounds ancient, right? This story is made more intriguing because the existence of jewelry in Africa was largely dependent on what was available in a particular area as well as on the culture and traditions of a people.
The Origin of Jewelry came about from the need for identification, self esteem, recognition and in some cases, the need to pamper self. Thus most of the jewelry was created from organic materials such as husks, bones, nuts, feathers, animal hair, curved stones, egg shells to name a few. In the past, jewelry in Africa was used in exchange for food and clothing. Cowry shells, which symbolized female fertility, were known for their resilience thus used for trade, unfortunately they were also used in slave trade.
So How Is It Like In Africa?
In Africa, jewelry has a mystic unspoken language derived from its culture, status and past victories and conquests. This varies in different parts of Africa, for instance in some parts of West Africa, beads are restrained to rulers yet in Central Africa, beads express privilege. In East Africa, anyone can wear beaded ornaments.
Before its ban, ivory was treasured for creation of beautiful jewelry items. In the 15th century, stone beads were skilfully curved in Benin. Coral beads were later introduced by the Portuguese traders. In Kenya, the Turkana and Masai tribes have used iron beads for many generations. The Masai and Samburu tribes are also known for their large red beads which date back to the 1850s.
The introduction of ceramic and moulded glass in the 1400s also saw the incoming of copper, iron alloys and brass to produce pendants and simple jewelry. Amber beads and bronze casting were commonly used in Nigeria and Benin for centuries. A show of gold wealth in form of bracelets, necklaces and rings was used in coronation of kings and leaders in Ghana and other parts of Africa.
The Latest Jewelry Story
The oldest African jewelry discovered dates back to over 75000 years ago. These are small mollusc shell beads, the size of a pea, found in 2004, in the Blombos cave in South Africa. Amazing, right? The story behind Ancient Jewelry is quite interesting.
African jewelry has seen its fare share of troubles and has evolved with time to what we find in our shops today.
