modern ndebele dresses For African Women’s 2021

modern ndebele dresses , Today i’m taking you to Africa again. On the south of the continent a tribe lives women of which have very interesting traditional costume and adornments. The tribe’s name is Ndebele and that they are famous round the world for his or her traditional mural art. Researchers say that probably the coloured geometrical patterns of the wall paintings are derived from the more ancient ornamental tradition of decorating women’s clothing.

The main element of Ndebele woman’s dress is an apron. Girls wear small front aprons made from tassels and beads which increase in size because the girls get older . once they reach marriageable age the aprons are replaced by stiff larger ones traditionally made from hardened skin but nowadays of cardboard backed by canvas. These aprons, called iphotho, are lavishly decorated with bead-work in geometric designs. The apron’s pattern indicates which age bracket the lady belongs to, whether she may be a mother or expecting a toddler or her desire for chastity and purity.

Also typical of the Ndebele costume are the idzilla – metal rings worn by married women round the neck, ankles and arms and isigolwane – large rings of beads on an iron or straw core worn on the hips and legs and sometimes on the arms and round the neck too. it’s said that tradition of wearing these beaded rings appeared because of the Ndebele men’s love for fatter women and therefore the rings function is to imitate rolls of fat. These rings are often pretty wide and therefore the whole set can weigh the maximum amount as 25 kg, hence another explanation of the tradition: in earlier times men wont to kidnap girls to form them wives often against their wish. The mother of the person then placed on those heavy beaded rings on the girl that she couldn’t escape.