Ostrich Egg Shell
Beads – an original African Trade Bead. 2014
Go to any bead show and you will usually find
an African Trader from the Gambia, Ghana or any other West African country
sitting at the back of his booth surrounded by tables piled high with strands
of colorful glass beads strung with the ubiquitous raffia straw; or metal
beads, or bone and horn beads. All the colors are represented, in stripes and
dots, of all sizes from tiny seed beads to large agate stone beads carved by
hand centuries ago. Most traders
would have you believe that most, if not all of his beads are old, if not
ancient. Of the glass beads, almost none originate in Africa, but instead come
from Europe and were traded in Africa by European traders for everything from
ivory and skins to slaves. Within Europe, the beads were primarily made in
Italy and Czechoslovakia. Some could be hundreds of years old, others made just
last week.
But back to the beads.
The bundle in your hand is heavy and looks
and feels old. The shape is called heishi and is a circular disk center drilled
from back to front. There are hundreds of these beads strung on a strand, and the
bundle will have about 12 to 24 strands in it.
For the most part these beads are about 250
years old and do originate from Southern Africa. They were made by the San
Bushman who are the last Stone Age tribe still in existence today living in
Africa. Go back 250 years and we are talking about 1760. The Cape of Good Hope
was a Dutch colony primarily settled by farmers who were stationed there to
provide fresh food for the sailors of the Dutch East India ships sailing to the
East Indies to supply Europe with spices. As the community grew and expanded
outwards towards the hinterland of Africa the settlers came in contact with the
San Bushman, whose presence ranged from present day Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The Bushman didn’t have much the white man
wanted, but one thing the Bushman made that could be used was the shell beads
they wore and decorated on their skins and weapons.
Fast-forward to today and most of the San
Bushman are extinct. Diseases killed off most of them by the 1800’s and most of
the rest by settlers who hunted them down as vermin for killing their cattle.
The government of the day issued bounties for hunters who brought in dead
Bushman. Most of the shell beads in the inventory of the African Traders today
have been collected years ago and just get carried around to shows until one
day there will be none left. Twenty years ago strands of these beads could be
purchased for $3 a strand. Now these beads are selling from $48 to $54 a strand
and are becoming scarce.
The bead starts off as an ostrich egg.
After the Bushman has collected the egg,
whether fresh to eat or by finding eggshell remains, the bead maker breaks the
eggshell up into small pieces and nibbles around the edges with his teeth until
it reaches the circular shape and size he wants. That is correct- he chips them with his teeth! If they want
a smoother edge, they rub them against a stone. Then by using his bow and arrow
as a hand drill he drills a hole through the middle of the disk he just
created.
Voila! A bead is created. By stringing them together he can
make a necklace; or by sewing them onto a skin he can embellish his clothing or
weapon.
The first words out of every traders mouth is
that these beads are old and that there are no new ones being made. That is not
a true statement.
During
a recent tour of South Africa, in April 2004, we stumbled across the last
remaining settlement of the Khoisan Bushmen of South Africa. It was about ½
hour outside of Kimberly, Northern Cape, near the town of Barkley West, on the
Wildebeest Kuil and Platfontein Farm, and visitors were welcomed at the newly
constructed Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Tourist Centre by members of the !Xue and
Khwe tribes, the last remaining community of San Bushmen in South Africa. They
are about 4,000 strong. Originally this tribe came
from Angola, and during the 1970’s when white South Africa was fighting the
Cubans and the nationalist guerillas in Angola and northern South West Africa
(Namibia) for independence from the Portugese they recruited this tribe to join
the army as trackers (for which they are the best in the world). When South
Africa pulled out of the conflict, they invited the tribe to leave with them or
face the consequences of staying behind and facing the wrath of the Angolans.
They were temporarily settled in Namibia but then forced to re-locate and finally under Nelson Mandela’s presidency
of South Africa were able to purchase land for themselves as an ancestral
home.
In the craft workshop and tourist gift shop Bushman artisans make
ostrich egg shell beads for sale in the same way they made them centuries ago,
only not strung on raffia. Instead they are sold loose in bags or in finished
jewelry or on decorations. The raffia stringing is a West African trader
technique.
One interesting thing we noticed about the newly made beads is that the
eggshells are thinner than the ones from 200 years ago – a testament to our
changing environment and climate.
In a conversation I had with Dena Crain of Kenya, who read my article, she explained that a problem is occurring in East Africa where the local Turkana women are harvesting wild ostrich eggs for food and bead making for money to such an extent that wild ostriches are decreasing in population to such a degree that Kenyan officials are worried about their demise. She explains that what is needed is for someone to step up and create ostrich farms to produce enough eggs to supply these women with material to make beads without killing off the wild ostrich populations.
In a conversation I had with Dena Crain of Kenya, who read my article, she explained that a problem is occurring in East Africa where the local Turkana women are harvesting wild ostrich eggs for food and bead making for money to such an extent that wild ostriches are decreasing in population to such a degree that Kenyan officials are worried about their demise. She explains that what is needed is for someone to step up and create ostrich farms to produce enough eggs to supply these women with material to make beads without killing off the wild ostrich populations.
So now, when you pick up that bundle of shell beads at the African
Trader’s booth at the next bead show you find yourself at, maybe they won’t
look so boring. Actually, they are very intriguing and come with quite a story.
Buy a strand and add it to your collection. Better yet, buy two. One for your
collection, and one to break up and use.
For more information on
the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Site and the !Xue and Khwe bushmen, visit www.museumsnc.co.za
Guy and J-ME own Wild Things Beads, a small family run import business
specializing in beads, buttons and baskets. They also run bead tours to various
parts of the world, such as Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
They can be reached by phone at (530) 743 1339 or on the web at www.wildthingsbeads.com. Their warehouse, which is
situated deep in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Northern
California, is open by appointment.