Waist ornament consisting of thin hide belt strung with blue and turquoise glass beads, with a long hide strip hanging from the centre, worn by women [RTS 1/4/2005].

Collection type: Object
Description: Waist ornament consisting of thin hide belt strung with blue and turquoise glass beads, with a long hide strip hanging from the centre, worn by women [RTS 1/4/2005].
Long description: Waist ornament consisting of a narrow strip of reddish brown hide (Pantone 476C), with the ends serving as waist ties, and the central part threaded with a series of spherical glass paste beads. These have a broad flat band around the centre, and were probably made using the technique of prosser-moulding, with 67 dark blue (Pantone 2747C), 4 turquoise (Pantone 305C) and 1 paler blue example (Pantone 278C). There is no obvious pattern to the ordering of these colours. A long narrow strip of reddish brown hide hangs down from the centre of the beading (Pantone 476C), with its top end folded over the waist band and secured with a stitch; the lower end has a narrow slit cut into it for decorative effect. The object is mostly complete, but there are some tears on the waist ties and one may be broken at its end. One of the glass beads appears to be in 2 halves, which have been strung separately, and most beads are covered with some surface dirt. There is also some surface discolouration on the hanging tail section. It has a weight of 27.4 grams, with the beaded waist band being 760 mm long, 6 mm wide and 1 mm thick, and the tail section 638 mm long, 6 mm wide and 2.5 mm thick. A typical bead has a diameter of 6 mm and is 5 mm long; the beads are all roughly of the same size and shape [RTS 1/4/2005].
Geographical reference: South Sudan
Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan; [Equatoria] Eastern Equatoria Bahr el Jebel
Cultural groups: Lango
Person: Field collector Samuel Peach Powell; PRM source Samuel Peach Powell
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1940
Date collected: By 1940
Acquisition information: Loaned: 1940
Materials and processes: Material Animal Hide Skin, Material Paste Glass, Material Synthetic, Material Bead, Process Moulded, Process Strung
Dimensions: Width 6 mm, Length 760 mm waist band, Length 638 mm hanging tail strip, Weight 27.4 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1940.7.081.2
Research and responses: A province known as 'Equatoria' or 'Al Istiwa'iyah' was in existance from some time in the 1940's to 1981, after which point it was divided into the districts of Eastern and Western Equatoria; in the 1990's these were subdivided further into the modern administrative districts of Western Equatoria, Bahr el Jebel, and Eastern Equatoria. If the Langu tribe is the same as the Lango, they are associated with the area around the Torit district, suggesting a provenance for this object in either Eastern Equatoria or Bahr el Jebel.
The moulded beads are probably glass paste, not plastic, made using the process known as 'prosser-moulding', a technique that moulds a milk-paste under high pressure then fires it, giving the appearance of glass or porcelein, but actually being a synthetic material. These types of beads were made in France, Germany and the Czech Republic (see Picard, R and J. 1995. 'Prosser Beads: The French Connection', Ornament 19.2, pp 68-71. Similar beads in various colours appear on objects from the Lotuko (1934.8.62, 1934.8.66, 1934.8.76), Jur (1934.8.104), Labwor (1940.7.049) and other items in the collection (1910.4.21, 1942.1.449). This type of bead also appears in Arkell's collection of trade bead sample cards (see 1971.15.195, 1971.15.196 and 1971.15.257; the cards were purchased in Omdurman and El Fasher, and the beads shown on them were made in Jablonec nad Nisou in the Czech Republic [RTS 1/4/2005].

Search terms: Clothing, Ornament, Status, Bead, Waist Ornament, Belt, Status Object