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Description

Rectangular beaded apron. Black, white, blue, red, green, and yellow beadwork on the canvas backing. Main design is consisting of an elongated clear light blue trapezoid above a white geometric shape that has a red diamond shape within, a three-stepped green shape at either side, and a horizontal dark blue rectangle. There is a pair or red triangles above the trapezoid and a pair of yellow triangles below. All shapes are outlined by black on a white background. The design is bordered by a row of black, then a row of green. Above the main beadword design, there is a horizontal zig zag row of alternating clear yellow and black bead sections on a piece of black fabric.

History Of Use

Unmarried, initiated girl’s apron, called isiphephetu, typically with a pattern that represents architecture. According to Powell, in 'Ndebele: a People and Their Art', it is a 'stiff rectangular apron worn by young girls after they have completed the period of seclusion which constitutes female initiation. "In contrast with the ligabi, the isiphephetu’s beading is usually more than merely geometric in its design, and it is here for the first time that the symbolism of the house is essayed in the bead cycle. Often the iphephetu is also the site for more fanciful flights of imagination in Ndebele beading, and such motifs as electric lights, chimneys and telephone poles are often in evidence. There is a good reason for this : the isiphephetu is made by the wearer’s mother while the girl is in initiatory seclusion, and it serves to express the mother’s aspirations for her daughter. In the older context, these translate themselves into a range of domestic symbolism, mainly in the form of house motifs, but as the bonds of traditional appropriateness have loosened, such motifs as the aeroplane, which in the Ndebele language is known as a ‘Ufly’, have become increasingly common…" The isphephetu is usually worn with a backskirt, known as an isithimba.