Waist beads with strings attached

By Harold Ayodo

It is meant to hit men below the belt, quite literally, strung as it is around the waist.

Atieno Adhiambo, 36, says she strips and performs a belly-dance for her husband with the beaded string hanging loosely around her waists.

Adhiambo confesses that she started wearing the beads as an accessory for the bedroom after a friend offered her one two months ago.

According to Adhiambo, the simple beads that sell at Sh300 per piece were introduced to her during a chama (merry-go-round meeting).

"My two colleagues joked that the beads were a short-cut to foreplay, particularly useful for men reluctant to engage in foreplay," Adhiambo explains.

FASHION STATEMENT

Most married women in the lakeside town of Kisumu have invented terms like chausiku (for the night) and kachumbari (the popular salad, usually used as accompaniment to roast meat), to refer to the bedroom accessory.

However, a majority of young and single women wear the waist beads mainly as fashion statement, or to help them keep track of their growing girth.

Representatives of Shinners Centre, a community-based organisation which makes and sells the waist beads in Kisumu say the demand is overwhelming.

Shinners Centre founder Caroline Ogot says they also receive orders from Nairobi, Mombasa and other towns countrywide.

"We send them to clients via courier…spouses who know the uses of the waist beads seek them over their effects and affordability," Ogot says.

Ogot, who is a trained teacher and student at the University of Nairobi, says their clients cut across the social divide.

"Kachumbari (waist beads) are pocket-friendly and do not have side effects as some sexual enhancers in form of drugs," Ogot explains.

She says they teach women how to maximise effects of the traditional waist beads before selling.

SPEAKING VOLUMES

"The woman must ensure that the man feeds well, she’s clean and performs a jig to chide her spouse," Ogot says.

She says beads must be clean and made of the couple’s favourite colours to add appeal.

"It is encouraging that some husbands come to purchase beads with their wives, which speaks volumes," Ogot smiles.

Ogot says the beads should not be visible to the public as they are meant for spouses in their privacy.

Brenda Awuor and Steve Siaka, artists who make the beads, say they mainly work on orders from clients.

"Different people adore assorted colours… we combine colours that appeal to different spouses," Awuor adds.

Siaka says they take waist measurements of women before getting to work, adding that the waist beads must be loose fitting. Awuor says she started making beads after interactions with female students from Uganda and Tanzania as an A-Level student in Uganda.

"I saw most women students from East Africa wearing them and sought to know their uses in different communities," says Awuor.

According to her, most East African communities use waist beads for intimacy.

Sociologists say the use of waist beads for sexual appeal dates back to days of yore, when they were also regarded as beauty accessories.

A sociologist at Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Dr Anne Mumbi Karanja, says women are simply going back to their roots.

"Several African communities across the continent used assorted jewellery, including waist beads for many reasons, including intimacy," says Karanja. The CUEA don says society may be undergoing a transformation, but use of waist beads for intimacy should not be viewed as witchcraft.

"We cannot castigate the use of the waist beads while they formed part of the culture and traditions," Karanja clarifies.

Awuor says some women accuse their spouses of witchcraft when they use beads.

For instance, the idea of women stripping and performing a belly dance — with the waist beads on — for the first time after years of marriage may appear strange to some men.

The effects have improved bedroom matters, which some men attribute to "tricks" being played on them, Siaka adds.

Tourists are also attracted to waist beads, Ogot explains, adding that local women who buy the beads are aged between 30 and 45 years.

"The clientele is mostly females in this age-group. They understand their bodies are bold enough to entice men," Ogot says.