By Yetunde Arebi

Bebedi! Owanbe! Bebedi! Owanbe! This is a short
question and answer chorus sang by little children while
at play. The objective of the song is to find out who, in
the group, has the biggest and most beautiful backside.
So, as each of the young girls step out to the middle of
the circle, the leader of the game asks, Bebedi, and the
others answer in the chorus, Owanmbe.
The girl in the middle then shakes her backside, now
called twerking, for the others to judge. Naturally, the
one judged most endowed of the group wins the game.

Such is the importance attached to the female bum,
especially in the African continent.
The female bum represents many things for the African
society, just as much sentiment is attached to it. It
houses the whole essence of a woman’s feminism and
sexuality.
The Bebedi, Jigida or Ileke idi, otherwise known as waist
beads are one ornament that have fascinated me for
many years. Why? I really have no definite answer.
Perhaps it is because of the beautiful array of blended
colours which often glistens against the rays of light
when the beads sneak out of their hiding under the
clothes, or just the idea that one is wearing something
unusual and secrete from what everyone else is wearing.

Unfortunately, I have not found the courage to wear one
yet. A childhood experience, still fresh in my mind,
probably contributed to this.
As a child, I lived with my grandmother, a very loving but
strict disciplinarian and daughter of a clergy who took
her Christian religion very seriously. However, we lived in
Sango, Ebute Metta area of Lagos where a large number
of Northerners and Muslim Yorubas also lived.
This gave me the opportunity to interact with and make
friends with several Hausa children and fell in love with a
few of them. Because their lifestyle was quite different
from mine, I was really enchanted by everything about
them and I became quite attached to two of them. Ruwa,
who was a few years older than me lived next door to my
right while Binta, my age mate lived two doors to our
right.
Virtually all my spare time, after school and evening
lesson, was spent in Binta’s company, in their dimly lit
rooms with blue and yellow light bulbs and thick smelling
Arabian perfumes. Binta’s mother must have been the
most beautiful woman I had ever seen at the time. Tall,
dark, beautiful and soft spoken she was always dressed in
gold and other shiny ornaments, same with Binta.
Long, drop earrings which my grandmother insisted
were unsuitable for children were Binta’s favourites. And
she always had a string or more number of beads tied
around her waist which she would let me see whenever
she got a new one. I loved them and wished I could own
a couple too but my grandmother would always say no,
insisting that they were for adults.
At about seven years, I did not understand why my
friends could wear them and I could not. Then one day,
on a visit to Binta’s, her mum gifted me with a very
beautiful set, similar to one of Binta’s. I quickly rolled it
up my waist and bounced home to show off to my
grandmother. Since she could not make one for me, well,
my friends have given me one.
What happened that evening formed one of the few
childhood experiences I could not understand for a very
long time. The beads were not only snapped off me, I
received a very good beating as well and told never to go
to Binta’s house again. My grandmother insisted the
beads were obscene, dirty and for wayward children.

I did not understand what the fuss was about, but a few
weeks later, Binta came to inform me that she was
getting married and moving to somewhere in the North,
I later learnt was Kano.
The reality of what happened to Binta did not dawn on
me until many years after, as a full grown adult and
Journalist, but the memory of my grandmother’s
reaction to the beads that night has never left and is
often replayed in my mind whenever I see a woman
wearing one.
As I grew up, I realised my grandmother was not the only
person with a misconception and bias towards the jigida.
Just as I have met women who adorn them and even
swear to their potential benefits, so have I met people
like my grandmother who have serious aversions to
them especially because of their sexual undercurrents.
Waist beads have, for a very long time, been associated
with female sex and sexuality.
They are believed to possess great erotic appeal and the
ability and power to provoke sexual desire and deep
emotions from the opposite sex.

Primarily, a traditional
female beauty enhancer, they are worn to accentuate
feminism and beauty, drawing focal attention to the hips,
bum and thighs as well as their movement. (The sway of
the bum as a woman walks) A woman’s chastity and
sexual character can be decoded by the use of beads.
It is believed that the movement of the bead as she walks
reveals a lot about her sexual morality, either as
seductive or reserved. For young African women,
wearing of bead was also a symbol of female maturity as
they are worn as proof that they have begun
menstruation and are ready for marriage, hence, the
many gifts of beads to young brides. In fact, in some
cultures, the strings of beads are used to hold up the
menstruating cloth across the buttocks.

Binta, at seven, was being prepared for marriage! My
grandmother knew while I was ignorant of these facts. I now understand why my grandmother broke my
beautiful beads and wonder what might have happened
to my beautiful and loving friend.
However, sex and sensuality are just a little of the
attributes of the beads, and in these attributes perhaps,
lie the controversies about the jigida. African waist beads
date as far back as early Egyptian history even though the
Yorubas and Ghanaians have more robust records of
being the source, users and makers of these beads. Waist
beads are believed to be sources of great spiritual energy
which many link with juju practice.

Traditionally, charmed waist beads are worn by women
to ward off negative energy from the body and to close
in positive or protective energy around the body. They
are especially worn by pregnant women to protect their
unborn babies too.
The Yorubas are also very famous for their charmed
waist beads. These charms are believed to possess the
powers to entice and entrap the opposite sex and even
improve their sexual prowess. These attributes no doubt
have helped to fuel some of the negativity some associate
with waist beads.

Many years back, a very rascally male friend told me
about a near death encounter he had with a girlfriend at
the time. According to him, he had made advances to the
girl for a quite a while before she finally agreed. The long
wait had increased his sexual desire for her.
To get her, he said, he had resorted to all the lies he could
think of in the code book. What he discovered the day
she finally came visiting shocked him to his bones. His
fresh, beautiful, university undergraduate wore waist
beads with several balls of wool tied around her waist.
This, she said, was why she could not date any guy. Her
father had put them around her when she began
menstruating, warning her that it was to protect her
virginity as well as deal with any guy that got access into
her without his permission. She had been so scared ever
since and until my friend came along, she had not been
with any guy. She told him he would die if they had sex
and so could only kiss and make out.
For several weeks he could not get the incident out of his
mind and eventually shared it with a couple of his guys.
Some believed the girl and told him to call off the
relationship while some others insisted it was all a
gimmick, either cooked up by the girl or a father to
protect her. They were sure nothing would happen to
him, while one of them even vowed to date the girl
should he end the relationship.
After weighing his chances for several weeks, he decided
to go for it and went on to persuade and convince her of
the benefits (hmm) she could enjoy from her sexual
freedom, if they succeeded. They cut off the waist beads,
set it aside to plunge into discovery world. It took several
days for them to realise that indeed, the supposed charm was all a ruse by the lady’s father! But what if it had been
real, I asked.
“Well, it would have been part of a young man’s fool
hardiness and I wouldn’t be telling the story today”, he’d
boasted. He said they broke up not quite long after their
successful exploration in the forbidden zone began. She
is married with kids today too.


Yet, there is far much more to these beautiful pieces of
wonder and their use have continued to spread across
person and counties even to the pole and belly dancers of the West and Europe. For many women, these beads
provide confidence, beauty and balance, especially in a
world that daily dictates what a modern or beautiful
woman ought to look like. Many testify that wearing
them improves their sense of worth and self esteem,
making them feel sexy and enjoy their sexuality better.
The beads can also be used to improve and prolong fore
play during lovemaking, a male friend of mine told me.
According to him, you will have something to run your
fingers along as well as count on and since they are worn
against the skin, this is another way of playing with your
partner. The movement of the beads against the skin
between the partners while making love also increases
sensation and excitement, making sex more enjoyable,
he said.

I am seriously thinking about getting one at this point.
I’m just waiting to sum up enough courage. After all,
catching a glimpse of shiny waist beads sitting on a well
rounded bum does provide great attraction and sexual
stimulation. Who will not want to take a second look,
especially if worn by a pretty lady.
Not many, I am sure. Besides, I’m told it is also used to
cultivate a well rounded hips and bum, which is why
mothers wear them for their little baby girls. I may even
start with a gold chain and good luck charms, after all,
my grandmother is long dead now. God bless her soul!
Enjoy the rest of your holiday please. I wish us all a
happy, peaceful and prosperous 2015

www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/mystery-waist-beads-modern-sexuality/

nawa oh.
Guys can be reckless. Wat if he had died after having sex with the girl ?

Abeg OP, try to make your post readable.

The Ileke idi must be the 11th wonder of the world.
Even some Europeans know the value of that thing. Once escorted a German friend to the market just to buy the waist beads for her hipless mom. Lol!

Am quite informed.