Africa Adorned
Peul (Fulani, Fulbe, Fula) nobelwomen with tattooed lips and gold earrings. Semi-nomadic pastoral settlement in the Hombori region of central Mali - part of the semi-arid Sahel zone that stretches across northern Africa just south of an encroaching Sahara. High resolution Noritsu Koki slide scan, Asahi Pentax SP Spotmatic, (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1976.
Peul women of this region often tattoo their lips, gums, and the area around the mouth before marriage, a painful aesthetic practice and rite of passage signifying marital status.
The extravagant earrings or "kwottenai kanye" symbolize the wealth and prestige of a husband or family based largely on the ownership of cattle among the Peul of the region.
The earrings are also an aesthetic symbol of cultural pride and identity, usually passed on as a gift from a husband to his wife or an heirloom to a daughter on the death of her mother.
Documentary Portraiture | National Geographic | BodyArt
© All rights reserved. expl#335
Africa Adorned
Peul (Fulani, Fulbe, Fula) nobelwomen with tattooed lips and gold earrings. Semi-nomadic pastoral settlement in the Hombori region of central Mali - part of the semi-arid Sahel zone that stretches across northern Africa just south of an encroaching Sahara. High resolution Noritsu Koki slide scan, Asahi Pentax SP Spotmatic, (SMC Pentax Zoom 45~125mm f/4), circa 1976.
Peul women of this region often tattoo their lips, gums, and the area around the mouth before marriage, a painful aesthetic practice and rite of passage signifying marital status.
The extravagant earrings or "kwottenai kanye" symbolize the wealth and prestige of a husband or family based largely on the ownership of cattle among the Peul of the region.
The earrings are also an aesthetic symbol of cultural pride and identity, usually passed on as a gift from a husband to his wife or an heirloom to a daughter on the death of her mother.
Documentary Portraiture | National Geographic | BodyArt
© All rights reserved. expl#335