Most ladies, growing up, were made to wear beads around their waists, ignorant of its significance or the meaning behind it. Student and Fashion Designer, Abigail Sedufia, in an interview on eTV Ghana’s Girl Vibes, shared per her knowledge, the reasons why ladies from childhood, are made to wear waist beads.
According to her, ladies being made to wear beads from infancy is simply to serve as a weight checker. She explained that beads are a way of tracking whether a baby is losing or gaining weight since it gets tight when the baby puts on weight and loosens up when she loses weight.
Co-interviewed on the show was the Chief Executive Officer of ‘Obsessed with Blings’, Emma Aisha Rassac, and she also shared her knowledge on some reasons why women wear waist beads.
In Emma’s opinion, waist beads historically in Ghana, originate from the Krobos who wear them during their ‘Dipo’ passage rites. This is a ceremony they hold for young girls who have now reached puberty to show that the girls have now menstruated and are ready for marriage.
She however mentioned that ladies, these days, wear beads simply for fashion or as a form of seduction since a lot of Ghanaian men now happen to have a fetish for women who wear them.
Again, she disclosed that beads are sometimes a form of verbal communication between couples. “You could have different types of beads which depict different meanings to your husband and are only understood by you both.
It’s a form of non-verbal communication for a woman to send a message to her husband that she’s fertile now or having her menses or that she’s in her free period and that is also a way of adding some excitement to your marriage”, the CEO further added.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye
