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African Trade Beads

African trade beads are beads that are strung up in some form of natural or manmade string to form beautiful adornments. The popularity of these beads has gradually been rising in the last few decades owing to primarily two reasons, their elaborate history and the exquisite artwork that is involved in making them. These African trade beads are known by this name because the Africans, owing to their affinity for decorative beads, used to use them as a part of their barter system between themselves and Europeans as well. As a result, many technically conscious historians might insist that the title of the African trade beads should be limited to just the glass beads that the Europeans used as leverage to get hold of African resources. However, even before the Europeans showed up on the continent of Africa, the Africans had been using beads to conduct trade domestically. Therefore, for the purpose of maximum clarity and information, the following is a list of six different types of African trade beads that includes older renditions as well.

1. Seed and Nut
These are beads made from naturally occurring seeds and nuts which is one of the reasons why these are not limited to any one region of Africa. The seeds were soaked overnight to make them soft and then strung in the morning with a nut being used as the centerpiece.

2. Shell and Bone
These are considered to be very exotic by many people because the shell and bone motif gives such jewelry an authentic tribal look. Shells to make these can be sourced from anything from cowry shells to ostrich eggs. Furthermore, bone has always been a popular material for bead making. Elk bones were the first to be used even though the current staples from which the bone for bead making is sourced are water buffalo and bison.

3. Tusk and Teeth
Owing to the heavy demand for these pieces, it is now very difficult to find and also very expensive to acquire them.

4. Stone and Metal
African trade beads had to wait a long time to include beads made from stone and metal primarily because of lack of stone and metal working on the continent. However, as is obvious, these are the most durable of the lot.

5. Glass and Clay
Glass African trade beads, as mentioned earlier, were introduced on the continent by Europeans looking to take advantage of the continent's resources. However, once introduced the Africans quickly learnt to appreciate the beauty inherent in any glass ornament.

6. Chevron
These are beads made of successive layers of different colored glass that were made to cater to the African and new world slave trade. As per records, the original chevron African trade beads were made of green, white, red and blue glass layers.

These are only a few categories of the African trade beads. There are even beads that do not fall under any category owing to their inherent uniqueness.