Waist Bead: A traditional Lingerie.

FYI this writer love seeing women adorn their waist line with waist beads. He also doesn’t fear women who wear it.

As a content producer with a media startup whose content is Africa centric, one of the few content I created for our social media audience at the time put a spotlight on the history of beads in Africa.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca9_QLuIF-k/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Social media is a powerful tool and everyday it is shaping opinions and behaviors. For example, I went to Kabusa market to get foodstuff, I got to the stall of this woman who sells garri, I didn’t know when it slipped out of my tongue that she should give me two modus of “Groceries”. I’m not joking, this happened. Groceries is the latest nomenclature of Garri, according to the rich kids on twitter. It was quite funny and it stuck for a while because I was also making jokes with it. This woman was startled 'wetin be groceries, na garri I dey sell for here kuma". I immediately corrected myself. Do you see how coming across tweets like that influenced my interaction with that market woman.

What inspired this article was also a post on twitter about fearing women who wear waist beads, I read through the comments and I was shaking my head.

First, I saw comments that demonizing waist beads, while there were even more projecting their fears on others due to their sexual experience with women who wear waist beads.

There’s always a teaching moment somewhere and I felt the need to share a few thoughts.

Where I come from Waist beads used to be more than a fashion accessory, every aspect of a people’s culture has two sides to it symbolism and materialism. Symbolism is what it means and represents, materialism are in the elements that is used for identification.

A young girl wearing a waist bead in some culture means she’s becoming a woman and it symbolises her rite of passage into womanhood, also, if a pregnant woman wears a waist bead it’s so that she can know monitor how her bowels are expanding as the baby grows in her belly. In some other culture is a status symbol.

You can also read up on the origins of waist beads and it’s benefits, you’ll find out a thing or two.

As we all know that culture is always evolving, and with it comes readjustment and a change in behavior, as well as what we think is acceptable or not in light of this evolution.

For example, parents these days would never consider putting tribal marks on their kids. Its been a while I saw a child with tribal marks. What about female genital mutilation, which was actually foreign to the African culture because it was introduced by the Arabs, became a usual practice here,is now being kicked against in these parts. No parent want to see their girl child go through that horrific experience. This is what evolution does.

I think the fact that waist bead is gradually losing its cultural significance in our society is why we hear takes like "fear women that wear waist bead"

So for instance a woman can be great and all that but the moment you take her home to mama, and she sees the waist bead on her, then she becomes unsuitable to marry.

I get that there are people who use waist bead for diabolical purposes, however, it doesn't make it lose it's essence culturally.

My goal of writing this is also to challenge wrong labels and stereotypes, because if we don’t they usually stick. We must stop labelling women who wear waist beads as sex workers. Women must be allowed to express their femininity, and we don’t need to gatekeep how they do it.

What used to worn by our mothers as a "traditional lingerie" is now being demonized because of this negative label some people have given it.

Meanwhile, a word for men, stop chasing every woman in skirt because na them dey tell us to fear women who wear beads.

I'm curious to know what shaped your perception about women that wear waist beads?

Tell me.