Zulu Love letter

Zulu maidens combine the colours in various ways to express a certain sentiment. Although many intricately beaded patterns are used, the main shape used in all Zulu Love Letters is the triangle. In the Zulu culture, the triangles found in beaded Zulu Love Letters have various meanings. The three corners of the shape symbolise father, mother and child. An inverted triangle signifies the unfulfilled male principle (i.e. an unmarried man). If the apex points downwards, it implies the unmarried female. If it is the shape of two triangles joined along the base to form a diamond, it means that a woman is ‘complete’ or married.

zulu-culture. RED: intense love (my heart bleeds for you)

BLACK: sorrow / loneliness / disappointment (‘my heart has become as black as the rafters of the roof, as I hear you have another maiden’)

GREEN: jealousy / love-sickness (‘I have become as thin as a blade of new grass from pining for you’)

TRANSPARENT: doubt / uncertainty (‘you are like the grasshopper, springing from bush to bush’)

BLUE: hope / calmness / faithfulness (‘if I were a dove, I would fly the endless skies to you’)

WHITE: purity / faithfulness / peace / true love. Colour symbols have alternative values but those assigned to geometric figures are constant.

 

Beadwork symbolism is encoded within a limited number of colours and geometric figures

 

When young Zulu men left their homes to work on far away farms and in towns, their sweethearts who were left behind and knew nothing about writing letters, had to develop a system that did not rely on writing to communicate with them. Zulu Love Letter the message of the beads should be read from outside to inside

 

White and pure is my Spiritual love for you,

I have turned pitch black as the rafters of the hut because I miss you,

My heart bleeds and is full of love

I have become thin like the sweet cane in a damp field

And green as the first shoots of trees because of my love for you.

In my loneliness hoping in finding new friendship that will bring love and wealth

 

White - hope

Black - next to the white of the band, signifying marraige

Red - next to the black signifying a aching heart

Yellow - Following the negative black red combination, selects " withering away, pining for "

Green - Illness, Discord

Purple - New friendship

 

The girl is saying : "We are married, but my heart is aching because our love seems to be withering away. When will you return?". Typically, a rural girl will send this to a young man working in the city if she has not heard from him for some time.

Done