Nupe bead-makers around glass melting furnace, Bida, Nigeria

Beadmaking industries still flourish among the Krobo peoples of Ghana and the Nupe peoples in Bida, Nigeria. The beadmaking industry at Bida is famous throughout West Africa. The German ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) drew European attention to the beadmakers in Bida in 1911, when he first documented their technique (Frobenius 1968, 434-36). Since then, other scholars have described this technique in their works (see, for example, Carey 1991,12-14). To produce the desired colors for their beads, Nupe beadmakers melt colored glass from bottles or other glass beads in a small, woodburning, clay furnace. They then use iron rods to form the molten glass into various shapes (Frobenius 1968, 434). Finally, the beadmakers decorate their beads with a distinctive white pattern by winding a thin trail of white melted glass around the bead while it is still hot (Carey 1991,14). The fluid colors of the irregularly formed glass beads convey a sense of elegance. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.