African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African Americans 51
“dug out of the ground.” Furthermore, folklore has it that if one of those beads were put
in a pot with a charm and some mashed plantains, another bead would appear after one
year. There are many other recipes for the propagation of these beads.
Trade
Beads are used to indicate status, for adornment, and as currency. The trade in beads
became a major industry, employing bead makers in Venice, Bohemia, Germany, and
France, to name a few centers. Shipping handlers operated from the United Kingdom and
the Netherlands. In Ghana (the former Gold Coast) alone, an average of thirty-four metric
tons of glass beads were imported annually between 1827 and 1841; the value of this
trade amounted to 15.7 percent of the total in 1846. The volume of beads that flowed into
the whole of Africa must have been staggering. Now the flow of trade goes the other
way, with fashion designers successfully using African beads and beadwork to enhance
their creations.
References
Carey, M. 1986. Beads and Beadwork of East and South Africa. Aylesbury, U.K.: Shire Books.
——. 1991. Beads and Beadwork of West and Central Africa. Aylesbury, U.K.: Shire Books.
Drewal, H.J., and J.Mason. 1998. Beads, Body and Soul: Art and Light in the Yoruha Universe. Los
Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum.
Evocations of the Child: Fertility Figures of the Southern African Region. 1998. South Africa:
Human and Rousseau.
Fagg, W.B. 1980. Yoruba Beadwork: Art of Nigeria. Lund Humphries.
Francis, Jr., Peter. 1993. Where Beads are Loved (Ghana, West Africa). New York: Lapis Route
Books, The Center for Bead Research.
Magogo (Ka Dinuzulu Ka Cetshwayo Ka Mpande) Buthelezi, Princess. 1963. Interview by Killie
Campbell. Killie Campbell African Library, Campbell Collection, University of Natal, Durban,
South Africa.
Morris, J., and E.Preston-Whyte. 1994. Speaking with Beads. London: Thames and Hudson.
Stevenson, M., and M.Graham-Stewart. 2000. South East African Beadwork 1850–1910: From
Adornment to Artefact to Art. South Africa: Fern wood Press.
Wood, M. 1996. Chapter on Zulu Beadwork in Zulu Treasures: of Kings and Commoners. South
Africa: KwaZulu Cultural Museum.
MARGRET CAREY
See also Body Arts
BEMBA
See History and Religious Rituals: Bemba Traditions