This skirt is worn at the close of female initiation ceremonies.  The overall design is characteristic of Southern Africa.  Geometric line based patterns are balanced with curved shapes.  This irregular placement creates movement and energy that has been likened to American jazz.  The bright primary colors, fringed edges and the movement of the wearer creates a powerful presentation.

Girls around fourteen years of age begin their transition into adulthood during an initiation process.  These young women are taught domestic and sexual responsibilities.  At the time of her seclusion during the initiation period, she designs and creates a skirt such as this example.  It is intended to accentuate her grace and elegance when she walks and dances during initiation ceremonies.  In addition to the skirt, she wears bracelets, anklets and necklaces.

Elaborately decorated skirts such as this would have been worn at the end of Marmo, the female initiation rite of Tanzania’s Iraqw people. During the initiation, which lasted from six months to one year, young, unmarried girls were kept in seclusion by a secret association of Iraqw women. As part of the extensive purification rite, the girls underwent a symbolic death and rebirth and learned women’s domestic skills and responsibilities in preparation for married life.

The initiation began with a procession of the girls, who were clad in animal-hide robes draped from the shoulders. While sequestered, the initiates transformed these robes into skirts, onto which they applied beads in complex geometric patterns. When the girls emerged from seclusion, they oiled and perfumed their bodies and donned the brightly colored skirts to announce their new status to the community.

A lavish example of this type of garment, this skirt is decorated with thousands of individually attached glass beads and four small bells. Strips of leather at the bottom create a wide, two-and-one-half-inch fringe. The skirt was wrapped around the waist with the central panel in the back. It weighs approximately thirty pounds, and would have been worn with equally elaborate necklaces, bracelets, and anklets.

The patterns on this skirt encode secret meanings known only to the women of the Iraqws’ Marmo society.