Ndebele
Initiated Woman’s Back Skirt (Isithimba)
Ndebele, 1933-1999
Scroll
Ndebele
Initiated Woman’s Back Skirt (Isithimba)
Ndebele, 1933-1999
Physical Qualities
Goatskin, glass beads (white, royal blue, blue, black, pink, green,pearl, and red; translucent purple, blue, green, and yellow), reed, metal, cotton thread, 21 5/8 × 28 15/16 in. (55 × 73.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Caroline Popper, Baltimore
Object Number
1991.369.1
.1) Rigid roll decorated with strands of white, black and blue beads sewn on a diagonal. Decorated band under roll has white ground with rectangles in black with solid color fill. 2 rectangles connected with yellow band. In center are 3 arrows, one pointing up and 2 down. Attached to edge of hide below beaded band is band of white with 8 black rectangles with solid color fill and a fringe of white, black and royal blue. Ties have metal discs strung on them. White beads on upper edge of hide, near rigid roll and beaded panels.
Collected by the donor in South Africa in the early 1980's.
Adorned: African Women & the Art of Identity
