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The author and her traveling companion used their precious Kiffa beads to make striking necklaces. The authentic Kiffas are interspersed with filler beads of matching colors and homemade imitations. Photo: Donna Chiarelli.
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Just what would entice someone to board a plane for Dakar, slog 733 miles across
the Senegal River and through the merciless desert, suffering all
the vicissitudes Third World travel has to offer?
In September, 1997, bead hunter Kirk Stanfield, otherwise known
as The Venerable Bead, decided to track down the elusive Kiffa bead
in its natural habitat.
I visit Kirk, the veteran of many African adventures, in a most incongruous setting - his home in the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country. He hobbles to the door, one foot injured as the result of bizarre misfortune during his most recent of such exploits. He is wearing pink African drawstring pants in a print so wild that his Amish neighbors may need to put bigger blinders on their horses. As my luck has it, although I prefer to think of it as being due to my personal charm, I get the benefit of Stanfield's experience without having to subject myself to the rigors of such a journey; Stanfield gives me a private reading from the detailed journal that he always keeps while on expedition.
I already understand why he lusts after these particular beads. Named for the city Kiffa in Mauritania, in northwest Africa, at one time known as a prospering center of their manufacture, these polychrome, powdered-glass treasures are prized investments with a way-better track record than Beanie Babies and a far more elegant look when worn as jewelry. Collectors, some of whom regard a Kiffa bead as the ultimate eye bead, covet them.
They are certainly among the most beautiful African-made beads. In the parchment desert, the rainbow-colored beads are a welcome contrast to the sere Saharan sandscape. But they are rapidly becoming an endangered species. A respected bead researcher, Stanfield pursues his quarry in order “to shed light on its history, manufacture, and relevance to Mauritanian culture.” But as a collector/business man/bead maniac, he always hopes to capture a few specimens to bring home as trophies.
In his travels, Kirk Stanfield finally had the opportunity to meet two makers of Kiffa beads, Fatima (left) and her sister, Fatima (right). Photo: Kirk Stanfield.
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FAME SPREADS.
The beads first came to the attention of non-Africans in 1949,
when researcher Raymond Mauny reported on the remarkable bead-making
industry which, at that time, existed throughout Mauritania. The
beads first came to my attention in 1996 when, at a trade show,
my business partner and I were offered magnificent old Kiffas -
the finest, longest, most perfect strand of many colors - for $750.
The beads were meticulously executed and the strand reached well
below my knees (and my knees are very low). Still, it seemed like
a lot of money to spend, so with our customary savvy business acumen,
we turned down the offer.
About two years later, we were able to buy a strand, half as fine
and less than a third as long for $1,500. Purchased individually,
the “market” value of a Kiffa bead is between $15 and
$35, although I have encountered sellers recently who think they
are worth $65 each. The value continues to increase due to the scarcity
of old, fine specimens. Frequently, these beads are found broken,
usually intentionally, because each piece of bead then becomes equally
as valuable as a single unbroken bead. I wish we could apply that
concept to all the beads we've broken through the years!
Kiffa beads come in several distinct forms and color patterns, and can be as large as 30 millimeters or as small as five millimeters long. The six archetypal shapes are round, cylindrical, conical, lozenge, hemispheric, and, most distinctive of all, triangular; the triangular beads, in particular, have inspired modern artists to render their own attractive and fanciful interpretations in glass and polymer clay. The shapes have meaning, the colors are chosen for a reason, and the patterns have significance.
In many traditions, triangular shapes are believed to have the power to pierce the evil eye; the dots and circles, or “eye” motifs, that adorn the triangular Kiffa beads are probably also intended to counteract evil spells - but their origin and intent are still mysterious. Some motifs may be symbols of individual tribes, while some are reminiscent of magic symbols found in prehistoric rock paintings.
Artisans in southern Mauritania have produced these beads for many generations,
but their beginnings are, as yet, mysterious. Jamey Allen and several other bead
researchers have concluded that the designs on Kiffa beads copy those of some
ancient Near and Middle Eastern beads, European beads (including 17th-century
Venetian beads), and even beads from Viking-era Scandinavia. A highly prized type
known to Mauritanians as Morfia - mosaic and millefiori beads with banded and
eye patterns from Egypt during the Early Islamic Period, circa 900 AD - were valued
enough to have inspired Kiffa bead makers to use similar motifs.
But perhaps most intriguing of all is that one of the key ingredients in the
composition of Kiffa beads is the bead maker's saliva. (So if you, in your ever-escalating
passion for small artifacts with holes running through them, have ever thought
you could just spit beads, this bead's for you.)
The tools that the sisters Fatima use to make their treasures are basic, but effective: a stone mortar, sand, grass, metal cans, and spit. Photos: Kirk Stanfield. |
BEAD SAFARI.
As Kirk reads from his memoirs, I become more and more grateful
for the cozy, comfortable Pennsylvania surroundings, and for the
ease of my journey to see him. On the road to Kiffa, whatever paving
there is, is usually quickly covered by sand. Mauritania has only
one per cent arable land; the climate is hot, dry, and dusty and
the sand-laden sirocco wind blows in March and April covering the
roads, which are not modeled after the German Autobahn to begin
with. More than four fifths of the people are Moors, or of mixed
Arab and Berber descent, semi-nomadic, living in tents, and migrating
with the seasons in search of water and grazing land.
There is one single-track railroad traversing the country, but Stanfield opts for the luxury of travelling by the likes of Toyota pickup trucks filled with goods on the bottom, 20 or so passengers on the top, and generally a sheep or two tossed on for good measure. He reads, “The sides of the truck are built up providing a grip from which to hang on for dear life as the vehicle plows through winding sand tracks a foot deep and steep gullies paved with rocks the size of footballs. The passengers are banged about to the point of bruising.” None of them are wearing Kiffa beads.
Along the way, he and fellow riders, hostages to six consecutive flat tires on the left rear wheel, are forced to camp in the bush until repairs or replacements are made. There is neither tiramisu nor Twinkies in the desert and definitely no beer, no matter how much the weary travelers might need one - Mauritania is almost 100 percent Moslem and dry in any sense of the word. Stanfield relates how later on, aboard another vehicle, “thick clouds of burning transmission fluid fill the air as the truck tries to defy the sand, surging at high speed in third and fourth gear so as not to get stuck.” The left rear tire of this vehicle goes flat, too.
Once, Stanfield is offered the passenger seat in the cab of the truck; when he peers inside, he discovers that the “seat” has no cover, just open springs, and opts instead for a spot in the truck bed, already filled with people and sheep. “Somewhere along this road a few passengers exit, but six women get on board sitting all over anybody already there with limbs and body parts unavoidably thrust into unseemly places. The vehicle is delayed at the guard post leaving town when the customs man charges the sheep 200 ouguiya each.” No Kiffa beads here either, not even on the sheep.
Colorful, mysterious, and increasingly rare, Kiffa beads are a magnet for serious bead collectors. |
TRADITIONAL DRESS.
According to Howard and Marie-José Opper, who examined over
2,500 Kiffa beads during the late 1980s and put together a small
but valuable publication on the subject, Mauritanian women wear
the beads in very specific ways. They wear their bead triangles
as hair adornments, and attach great importance to their hairstyles,
which are covered by scarves and revealed only to their husbands
and other women.
Triangular Kiffa beads are worn at the temples in groups of three: one is solid red, one is blue with white dots, and the third is multicolored with chevron or zigzag patterns symbolizing running water (an essential for desert dwellers), and sometimes circles (eye motifs) or triangles. Occasionally, a colorful triangular bead is worn bordered by several non-Kiffa beads of ancient blue glass called nila and locally formed jasper beads, all stitched onto a piece of cloth that is attached to a chignon above the forehead. Traditionally, lower-caste rural women wore these at weddings, but the custom is disappearing as rapidly as the beads themselves. The colorful conical beads, known as masnoura or nourakad, meaning “hand made,” also show up as hair adornments, sewn onto strips of leather or suspended from the right temple in combination with an amber bead, a nila, and a jasper or carnelian bead.
Beads, in this case the lozenge-shaped Kiffas, are also stitched onto leather to make bracelets, again in standard patterns. The beads are either solid red or blue, with two rows of white lines resembling hem-stitching, or polychrome in a pattern of red, white, yellow, and black known as “house of the turtle” because of their resemblance to the shell of this auspicious creature. Round beads are used as central beads on leather necklaces, with one nila and one jasper bead on either side. More elaborate necklaces may also have smaller round beads in the design, always following a traditional order. But even in Kiffa, fashions change. Nowadays, a round bead may be worn on a string with small black plastic discs or tiny European black glass and garnet beads.
The cylindrical beads are also worn as a central necklace component.
There is no Sheraton in Kiffa, or in any of the other stops along the way - although if you bring gifts when visiting a town, you might cadge an invitation to spend the night in someone's mud hut. You'll most likely be sharing a bed with the grandfather or other assorted relatives; goats, chickens, and cats fight all night atop the metal roofs; and the mosquitoes are vicious. In short, it's not Club Med. But the people are extremely hospitable.
In town, Kirk attempts to change money - an unexpectedly daunting prospect. “I find a bank, but they can't change a $100 bill because, in fact, there is no money in the bank. I try a post office, a shop, and finally, purely by luck, meet the local Peace Corps volunteer, who finds a way to end my predicament. I am now ready to shop.” Beads, in general, do not necessarily come easy or cheap in Mauritania; in the marketplace in the capital, Stanfield is offered rare, ancient beads for 400,000 ouguiya - $3,000 - apiece. He doesn't have much luck in Kiffa itself - the beads (locally called murakad, according to one dealer) seem picked over, and nothing truly luscious grabs his attention. Watching a man gold-plating jewelry using a car battery barely compensates for the disappointment. In order to find the bead makers, he has to leave the relatively comfortable confines of the town.
Kiffa's population can range from 65,000 to 80,000, depending on the time of year. The wet season sees an exodus of city-dwelling Moors from town in late summer; they camp from August to October, enjoying fresh milk and meat before the herds are sent back south to the care of their 'captives,' the Haratines (black Moors), heirs of a caste system that is at least 500 years old. It is at one of these camps that Stanfield encounters his first real Kiffa bead makers.
“Two sisters, both named Fatima, speak no English or French, so my lesson in Kiffa bead making is performed in mime,” Stanfield relates. They demonstrate, with only slight variation, the traditional methods of production that were described years before by our first reporter, Raymond Mauny.
In the markets in the capital, Kiffa beads are offered for up to $3,000 apiece, such is their desirability. |
SPIT AND POLISH.
Kiffa beads are made by grinding clear bottle glass into fine
powder in a stone mortar to use for the foundation of the bead.
The bead makers Stanfield encounters also use seed beads and Prosser-type
tile beads to recycle into their beads. The powdered glass is made
into a paste using the bead maker's own saliva as the wetting agent
and left to dry. Stanfield watches as Fatima drools into her ground
beads; then, using a cross made of two stiff grasses fastened together
with thread as an armature, she forms the desired shape using the
longer blade of grass to form the hole. The molding of a core bead
takes about five minutes.
Next, the core bead is set on moistened sand atop a piece of metal and covered with a sardine can (sans fish) or the like, to form a makeshift one-bead oven, which is then placed in a bed of glowing embers. After 40 minutes, during which time the embers are kept red hot, the bead is done. (Perspiration garnish is optional.) The bead is then dried, shaped, and smoothed using a razor blade.
Other shaped beads are made similarly, but use only one straw to form the hole. The secret of fabrication of conical beads (koust el arf, meaning “imitation of the unique”) is said to be handed down by the prophet Soulleiman, whose single bead became the noble or “mother” bead from which all others would be patterned. Round or conical beads are formed in appropriately shaped wells or indentations that have been carved or drilled into pottery shards. Sometimes the “oven” base merely has narrow holes to hold the straw, suspending the bead above the shard. Sometimes, for round beads, a crucible is formed strictly of pottery and the hole is drilled after the bead is “cooked.”
In preparation for decorating the bead, monochromatic opaque beads and glass are ground separately and the powder placed in individual receptacles, such as marine mollusk shells, pottery, or I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter tubs. The powders are then turned to pastes using yet more saliva. Designs are applied with a needle or thin piece of wood in what is the most painstaking and time-consuming operation in the process. Kirk observes that his bead maker “cooks” the undecorated bead first, then applies decorations using pigments made from ground seed beads and then cooked the bead again. Using this traditional method, a bead maker can, at best, make two to three beads a day.
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Wearing Well
Kiffa beads, if worn in a necklace, should be strung as a choker, a collar, or only slightly longer, so that the triangular beads do not flip this way and that when the necklace is worn, as they tend to do on longer strands. It is wise to knot between beads to protect the beads from breaking against each other and to insure that if the necklace does break, no beads will be lost - especially in view of the fact that the market price for a single Kiffa bead is currently $50.
You can intersperse the beads with inexpensive color-coordinated filler beads or, as I did in my necklace, you may take some suitable powder glass beads and, with the wonders of colored markers, pens, paint, and a very steady hand, turn them into decent imitations. -IS.
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About 10 years ago, Kiffa beads were still being produced in and around the towns of Oualata, Mederdra, Atar, and Aioun el Atrouss. But many of the few remaining bead makers are nomads who follow the seasons from place to place with their tribes, thereby distributing the beads. The nomadic people collect and value the beads, sometimes wearing them, selling them when need demands. But the beads, especially the triangular ones, for some reason, are falling out of favor with Mauritanian women, who are selling or trading them for European glass beads.
While production of the beads recently ceased for a time, several women have begun to make them again. Stanfield surmises there are 12 to 18 bead makers in and around Kiffa. Despite the revival, however, most bead aficionados agree that the new varieties are not as well crafted as their predecessors and are readily identifiable by being less refined, simpler in detail, and by their brighter colors.
Traditionally, a ritual of prayer and incantation accompanies the creation of each bead, but bead enthusiast Anita Gumpert, in an article in the newsletter of the Bead Society of Greater Washington in 1995, suggests that the spiritual aspect of Kiffa bead making is on the wane, as is the use of sardine cans and pottery shard ovens. She learned from Marie-Francoise
Deloziere via the Oppers that a cooperative of bead makers had approached Kiffa's French sister-town, Vitrolles, which in turn sent an investigatory committee to discuss the importation of modern commercial kilns to help meet the demand for these beads. This would be welcomed not only by the bead makers, but also by Senegalese dealers who can barely find enough beads to feed the bead-lust of Japanese, European, and American collectors. Stanfield's visit, several years after her report, however, revealed no evidence of a bead maker's cooperative or of modern equipment being used.
Crossing the river back into Senegal, Stanfield is greeted on one side by topless bathers and on the other by a Senegalese immigration officer in a Donna Karan designer shirt. Over a cold beer, he reflects upon his recent experiences. He has a journal full of memories and probably a good dose of malaria, but it was surely worth it all to bag a handful of Kiffa beads and bring 'em back alive.
As I drive away, suddenly absurdly grateful for the paved roads of Pennsylvania, I think I should have asked him if he wears a pith helmet when he goes bead hunting. Or, for that matter, those pink African pants.
Bibliography:
Allen, Jamey, “Bead Arts: Kiffa Beads,” Ornament 20 (1): 76-77, 1996.
Delaroziere, Marie-Francoise, Perles d'Afrique, 110-115 Edisud, Aix-en- Provence, France, 1994.
Francis, Peter, Jr., “Beads of the Early Islamic Period,” Beads 1:21-39, 1989.
Gumpert, Anita, The Bead Society of Greater Washington Newsletter, XII (5) Nov./Dec, 1995.
Mauny, Raymond, “Fabrication de perles de verre en Mauritanie,” Notes Africaines, no. 44, Dakar Senegal, 1949.
Opper, Howard and Marie-Jose, Kiffa Beads, 1989.
Opper, Howard and Marie-Jose, Rare Mauritanian Kiffa Beads, Ornament 12 (3) 32-35, 1989.
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