armlet (arm ornament)

A pair of imixhaka (sing. Umxhaka), worn singly or in numbers just above the elbow of either or both arms. Worn by amakhwenkwe (youths), abafana (young men), iintombe zabafana (girls who consort with youths) and abafazana (young women) at will and to dances, festivities. White beads wound around thick fibre core (umliza, pl. imiliza).

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

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