African Waist Beads (red and white)

Description

Beautiful beaded waist beads made in Ghana west Africa.

Throughout several countries in Africa, belly beads have been used to adorn girls and women and indicate how they have matured and grown.

Traditionally, mothers adorned their daughters with waist beads during their first menstruation as a rise of passage into womanhood. New belly beads were looked forward to, as they symbolized a healthy life, and the special things about a woman that set her apart from a man.

Intimate Appeal
Waistbeads can also be worn for seduction. Not only do they symbolize a woman’s progress in life, but they honor her sexuality as well. For some, waistbeads possess intimate appeal and can provoke desire. Wives would often lure their husbands with the rattle of beads or use them as a means to communicate their fertility at certain times of the month.