Beaded belts

Kuba beadwork, like their cut-pile raffia clothes, are thickly covered with pattern. In these three men's belts, color, texture, and designs are created with glass beads and cowrie shells applied to a woven raffia textile base. While beads are prevalent in the art of many African societies, each group has a preference for certain types, color combinations, and designs. The Kuba work is particularly interesting in the way it combines beads of different shapes and sizes, along with shells, in a coherent composition. The Kuba like to utilize natural variations in the beads' shapes, as well as variations in color, to create patterns. Cowrie shells, traded from the Indian Ocean across the continent, were once used as currency in many parts of Africa and as signs of wealth. The glass beads were imported from Europe as early as the sixteenth century, when they were used in the slave trade. The blue beads, that are particularly popular among the Kuba, come from Venice.