@ NRI

Heres a picture of an Igbo maiden with head beads. In certain parts of Igboland, maidens usually tied their hair in round knots and laced it with beads just as Ibibios and Efiks do.

Here's another picture of an Igbo woman with head beads. Compare her neck beads with that of the Edo woman in the next picture.

Again with bead similarities bewteen the Igbo and Edo.

What I've noticed is that the young women of the Igbo, Ibibio, Efik, and Ijaw tend to wear their attire in two pieces: A wrapper covering the bosom and another covering the waists leaving their belly exposed while Edo, Urhobo and Esan wear a long robe.

I'm often never on the same side of issues with Odumchi, but on this one Nri, I agree with the riff-raff that Igbo girls do wear head beads. Frankly I dont know any culture in South that the women do not use beads to adorn from head to ankles.

Odumchi, wearing a female hat made wth beads is different from lacing hair with bead. Igbo women do the later but it usually not prominent in their appearances. I see your point,but the Benin women and the Ijaws will cover their whole hair with beads,hence forming a hat but the Igbo women will only use few beads to design their hairs,which is quite different.

NRI PRIEST:

Odumchi, wearing a female hat made wth beads is different from lacing hair with bead. Igbo women do the later but it usually not prominent in their appearances. I see your point,but the Benin women and the Ijaws will cover their whole hair with beads,hence forming a hat but the Igbo women will only use few beads to design their hairs,which is quite different.

I respect your opinion.

you need to post photos from 100- 200 or more years ago to make your point.

no one is denying the obvious links between all these cultures but posting pictures of modern women with beads doesnt quite cut it.

also, you can look at cultural similarities in areas like masquerades, food, traditional religion, etc.

tpia@:

you need to post photos from 100- 200 or more years ago to make your point.

no one is denying the obvious links between all these cultures but posting pictures of modern women with beads doesnt quite cut it.

also, you can look at cultural similarities in areas like masquerades, food, traditional religion, etc.

If you're referring to the dressing, the type of things that you see here are what our distant ancestors wore. These articles of clothing aren't exactly "modern". Notice how I said to disregard the wrappers and blouses because things like that don't necessarily fall into the category of "traditional attire".

Notice how I said to disregard the wrappers and blouses because things like that don't necessarily fall into the category of "traditional attire".

true.

which is why, in examining links between cultures and peoples, things like traditional religion, food, deities worshipped, masquerades, etc are a more reliable indicator than clothing and/or beads.

just saying.

checking the source, suppliers and makers of the beads could also give some clues.

If you think that will help, I'll post some photos later.

^^you dont necessarily have to, since there are photos on other threads.

i'm just pointing out the fact that while its true most southeast/southsouth/midwest cultures have similar dressing and beads, those other factors are a more solid way of demonstrating the intercultural links.

boundry adjustment is talking again

In Naija we've got beautiful cultures.

buhahahhaha. i laff ohh. so when did igbo women start wearing clothes talkless of beads.

and edos , buhahhahahaha.

nah who teach them how to tie wrapper ?


thank goodness for the whiteman in some peoples lives.

Multiple groups of women from different ethnic groups wore beads, but they had their own different styles. Nowadays, the Bini style is not exclusive to Bini women.

oduasolja:

buhahahhaha. i laff ohh. so when did igbo women start wearing clothes talkless of beads.

and edos , buhahhahahaha.

nah who teach them how to tie wrapper ?


thank goodness for the whiteman in some peoples lives.

So a wrapper is a traditional "whiteman" (Western European) style of dressing now?

Do you realize how dumb you sound?

At the very most, if looking for outside influence, one might be inclined to look towards the Sudan or Egypt for a similar dress style to that of people who wore wrappers, but not to Europe or to white people in general.

What I'm most interested in knowing is how this got to the other

[center][img]http://4.bp..com/_jeBv7EEofYQ/TLtyt9anSWI/AAAAAAAAAJY/JaUonOlTJCM/s1600/awka_headdress.jpg[/img][/center]

I've hardly seen any Igbo person wearing authentic Igbo attire, apart from royalty.

[center]Proper Igbo hairdos and attire.



[img]http://4.bp..com/-fNydxPm9Qhk/TqSdzWooP3I/AAAAAAAAAuA/TWViy28nZMM/s1600/AN00058230_001_l.jpeg%2Bcopy[/img]

[img]http://2.bp..com/_jeBv7EEofYQ/TLt7rOYUD0I/AAAAAAAAAJ4/u0a81Cdrd0Y/s1600/probably+igbo.jpg[/img][/center]

I'm even thinking what we now know as Edo attire was only for noble people back then, something about every common person wearing all those beads doesn't fit well with the image of old Benin.

[center]Igbo cultural "alluding", modern clothes formed in the fashion of a time long forgotten. The modern traditional Igbo wear isn't a continuation of a tradition, but an effort, or even guess, of what traditions were. That's why you get all this confusion of what is Igbo attire when you see Igbo women dressed like Benin princesses to their weddings. Most of these people have no clue what their ancestors looked like apart from nollywood, which is almost 100% inaccurate all the time. The girl below is wearing something we now call George, obviously from its name we see it something foreign, and in all the photos of Igboland taken between the 1880s and 1920s we don't see anyone wearing the material, they only started spreading around the 1930s.

[img]http://3.bp..com/_oC_NfFNkTFE/SRID4glYNpI/AAAAAAAAAII/M-i28hwO4IE/s400/lauretamaidenandsister.jpg[/img][/center]

There are many things that have become part of generic Igbo fashion, and generic Nigerian fashion which has wiped away many of the authentic traditional clothing. This includes all the blouses, lace, head ties, handbags and plastic beads.

@ezeagu; what is the origin of those black and white pictures? By that I mean, who are the people represented there?

ezeagu:

I'm even thinking what we now know as Edo attire was only for noble people back then, something about every common person wearing all those beads doesn't fit well with the image of old Benin.

Yeah, beads in general were for the nobility.



http://africa.si.edu/collections/view/objects/asitem/People$00402369/0?t:state:flow=dc2054ae-ee55-4620-95cd-f476c68ef042

"Date: 18th-19th century
Maker: Benin kingdom court style
Edo peoples
Dimensions: H x W: 24.4 x 23.5 cm (9 5/8 x 9 1/4 in.)
Medium: Copper alloy
Credit Line: Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn to the Smithsonian Institution in 1966
Geography: Nigeria
This object possibly supported an ivory tusk on an altar. The depiction of four female figures holding gongs suggests an association with an iyoba, or queen mother. Two figures strike bird gongs, which symbolize the infallibility of the oba."

ChinenyeN:

@ezeagu; what is the origin of those black and white pictures? By that I mean, who are the people represented there?

I think the three women and the women who is trying not to laugh are from Oka, I'm not sure of the others because it doesn't say from where I got them (ukpuru..com), but most of these pictures are from what is now Anambra. From what I've seen, I think people in what is now Abia were more likely to use threads for hair styles.

PhysicsQED:

Yeah, beads in general were for the nobility.

I thought so, because I remember seeing a picture on the Benin art thread where most people were wearing white.

ezeagu:

I think the three women and the women who is trying not to laugh are from Oka, I'm not sure of the others because it doesn't say from where I got them (ukpuru..com), but most of these pictures are from what is now Anambra. From what I've seen, I think people in what is now Abia were more likely to use threads for hair styles.

Oh okay. Thank you.

From my research so far it seems all black Africans were very much alike in culture,religion and a lot of things before contact with Europeans. Most of these things we call our culture today are infact the things that killed our culture. Arabs and Europeans. Our real culture was beautiful and rich.

So we can actually say our true culture existed before the 16th century.

I very much doubt people from Imo wore those headgears.
They are nice however.
Any idea what they were made from?

some-girl:

I very much doubt people from Imo wore those headgears.
They are nice however.
Any idea what they were made from?

Very difficult to ascertain based on the present constitution of states with artificial boundary. That said I think a whole lot of black Africans wore a variation of that gear all the way down to Zanzibar and Swaziland.

Something I also find interesting is that Igbo boys grew their hair, while now it's looked down upon:

[center][img]http://4.bp..com/-NP7lSgIM4Lk/TqSdoTiUxUI/AAAAAAAAAt0/jrUkXkraXU0/s1600/AN00058171_001_l.jpeg%2Bcopy[/img][/center]

Abagworo:

From my research so far it seems all black Africans were very much alike in culture,religion and a lot of things before contact with Europeans. Most of these things we call our culture today are infact the things that killed our culture. Arabs and Europeans. Our real culture was beautiful and rich.

So we can actually say our true culture existed before the 16th century.

lol, research? Aren't you the same person that claimed that

a) we were all unclad before contact with either Europeans or Arabs (you said this recently in another thread)

and that

b) "The only traditional cloth making community in Southern Nigeria is Akwette in Abia State"

PhysicsQED:

lol, research? Aren't you the same person that claimed that

a) we were all unclad before contact with either Europeans or Arabs (you said this recently in another thread)

and that

b) "The only traditional cloth making community in Southern Nigeria is Akwette in Abia State"

A) Africans were purely the same and are still same to me. We were all unclad and lived in mud houses with thatch roof and that is the truth. Going by all the older pictures I've seen only either the noble or elderly wore clothes. The children and common people were stack naked or show me any picture displaying other wise.

B) I can't vouch for so I won't argue about that.