Iraqw skirt, early 20thcentury.
Tanzania.
Dressed animal skin, glass beads, sinew thread, metal bells, 170 x 70 cm.
Commonwealth Institute, London.
This extraordinary example of the traditional dress in eastern Africa, particularly
the range of colours of the beads, consists of four hide panels on which
thousands of glass beads have been applied with a lazy-stitch to form various
bands and geometric motifs, along with three bells. Iraqw beaded skirts are
arguably the most elaborately adorned clothing items of this area. The central
panel was worn in the back and the right edge wrapped over the left in the
front, the two ends being tied together. Despite the weight of the skirt, it is easy
to imagine the swaying of the fringe and tinkling of the bells that occurs from
the walking or dancing of the young woman wearing it.
Traditionally, the skirts were made and worn during the girls’ initiation ritual,
Marmo, which the government banned in 1930, though may still be practised
today in some form or another. The overall meanings and motifs are unknown
to outsiders, though it may be assumed that the white beads used are meant to
sybolise the new purity of the initiate.