African Bead & Stone Necklaces
African bead & stone necklaces fulfill an important cultural function in African societies. African bead necklaces reflect the wearers’ beauty, culture, power, pride and identity. Once African beads were valued as currency, today Africans continue to believe that beads can be infused with spiritual powers, to provide protection, invite good fortune, or impart fertility. Women customarily wear beads around their waists to enhance their figures, entice men, and for healing and rejuvenation. Today African people continue to use and wear beads to convey social position and identity, also for cultural recognition, status and adornment.
Ghana has a long tradition of bead culture dating back over 4000 years. Most common stone beads found in Ghana today are bauxite beads, an industry that was already flourishing a century ago. Most of the glass beads made in Ghana today are produced either by the Asante people, in villages near Kumasi, or by the Krobo people, in villages in the Akuapem hills.
