Ceremonial train

The word nyoka literally means "snake." It refers to the physical appearance of the long, rectangular beaded panels that are identified with Ndebele brides, but it does not seem to imply anything snakelike about the garments' wearers. Unlike Western bridal veils, these Ndebele creations were worn after the wedding on important occasions. There seems to have been quite a lot of variation on how they were worn: attached to a headpiece, draped from the shoulders as a cape, even worn down the front of the body.

Long rectangular beaded panel of small white glass beads with multicolored central geometric motif of a diamond bordered on top and bottom by six open rectangles. At the bottom is a central projecting tab with multicolored beaded geometric bar design and an openwork section along the bottom of the main panel and tab. The panel hangs from a beaded cylindrical holder.

Constance Stuart Larrabee, South Africa, 1937-1949 to 2000

TxtStyles: Fashioning Identity, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 11-December 7, 2008

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