ABOUT PRODUCT

This 2 in 1 set includes:

1. The colourful knobkerrie stick
2. The colourful xhosa hat
3. The colourful beaded isigolwani or neckring and tie

History of the Isigolwani:

Although the origins of the South African Ndebele are shrouded in mystery, they have been identified as one of the Nguni tribes. The Nguni tribes represent nearly two thirds of South Africa's Black population and can be divided into four distinct groups; the Central Nguni (the Zulu-speaking peoples), the Southern Nguni (the Xhosa-speaking peoples), the Swazi people from Swaziland and adjacent areas and the Ndebele people of the Northern Province and Mpumalanga.

Married women from the ndebele tribe wore neck hoops made of grass (called isigolwani) twisted into a coil and covered in beads, particularly for ceremonial occasions. Isigolwani are sometimes worn as neckpieces and as leg and arm bands by newly wed women whose husbands had not yet provided them with a home, or by girls of marriageable age after the completion of their initiation ceremony.