Southern African Peoples

Southern Africa is home to many peoples with different traditions of beadwork, clothing, hair and skin decoration. Its broad range of styles cannot be reduced to one regional costume.

Historical accounts from Zimbabwe describe nyora, patterns made through scarring. Some marks were associated with beauty or belonging, others with healing. Their appearance and purpose depended on the community and the person receiving them.

Hairstyles could be equally impressive. Hair might be shaped into elaborate forms that changed the outline of the head. The portraits here show how much skill went into arranging it, just as into clothing and ornaments.

Ndebele women developed bold beadwork for aprons and other garments. Related geometric patterns also appear on decorated homes. A carefully made design could surround a person in several ways: worn on the body, worked into a hairstyle or painted on the walls where a family lived.