Margie's Muse

The Colors of Tribal Africa

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In this month celebrating Black History let's be inspired by the brilliant colors of tribal African cultures. These palettes begin with black or white, and consist of intense reds, radiant yellows, rich blues, and an array of greens. Cultures of warm climates across the globe share a love of high contrast, all-out saturated hues that sing exuberant vitality.

There's a fresh directness in African cultures' predominant use of black, white, and what we call primary and secondary colors. No subtle modulations, but rather a bold simplicity that I find exuberant and exciting. Combinations are zealous, with attention paid more to symbolic significance than aesthetic proportions.

The pastoralist tribes of East African, with their nomadic lifestyles, have cultivated the art of adorning themselves with jewelry, painting, scarification, and headdresses. Their jewelry creates a bright spot which visually leaps off the surrounding neutrals of earth, skin, and fabric. I think of elaborate Maasai collars, those concentric rings of red, white, yellow, black, and blue that encircle tall slender necks. Or bold patterns of white chalk painted across deep chocolate brown bodies, accentuated by brilliant red beaded waistbands and bracelets.

Turkana women are very dark, and wear piles of solid colored strands of large beads of red, yellow, blue or black. The men adorn their arms with bracelets of iron, copper, or brass, indicating their status or age, or role in warfare.

Dark Dinka men of Sudan wear bright beaded corsets or belts whose colors indicate their age. Young Dinka women wear beaded bodices, adorned with cowrie shells, to indicate their availability for marriage. They show their wealth or status by wearing thick, flat, ivory bracelets.

In the "Pure Hues" chapter of The Beader's Guide to Color, I write "Pure colors excite and energize. These are the sit-up-and-pay-attention palettes. Viewers react strongly to a pure color palette, often near the extremes of love or hate." I'm inspired by these styles and colors which are so often less inhibited than what we Westerners find palatable.

I highly recommend Africa Adorned, by Angela Fisher, one of my favorite books to lose myself in. Its pages are covered with exquisite photos of people, jewelry, and customs that are becoming extinct. May you be inspired by the raw beauty in the palettes of these forgotten cultures.