African Body Art: Meaning
That Is More Than Skin Deep

On a mission to understand African body art, I focused on understanding why, in many African cultures, people decorate their bodies. I searched the Internet and finally found my answers.

I was delighted to discover these revealingly interesting insights by Jane Bingham in her book African Art & Culture:

They may paint patterns on their faces and bodies, create elaborate hairstyles, make a permanent design of scars on their skin, or even alter their body shape.

In southeast Nigeria, where heaviness is admired, young girls spend some time in a "fattening house" before they are initiated into adult womanhood.

In Kenya Kikuyu women wear earplugs because extended earlobes are considered beautiful.

African Body Art To Attract

As you all know dear ladies, men are always trying to attract us in any way they can. For many African people this is especially important. Were you aware that young Nuban men from Sudan often decorate their bodies in order to attract a wife?

This body painting can take several hours to do and has to be continually refreshed, as the Nubans wash daily.

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Sudanese paint their heads with bold blocks of white, black, red and blue and decorate their faces and bodies with abstract patterns of various swirls, triangles and dots.

Other ways to attract the opposite sex include African braids, African symbols and African craft of all kinds.

Also of interest, Kenyan Maasai herders coat their skin with a mixture of red ochre and oil to make their bodies shine. They also rub ochre into their hair, which has been braided into elaborate shapes.

Young Maasai men use ochre before hunting, ceremonial dances, or when they want to attract young women. Oftentimes body paint is applied to ward off danger.

African Body Art In The Extreme

The Central African Pygmies paint elaborate designs on their faces to protect themselves from evil spirits.

In some parts of North and West Africa, the henna plant is used to make an orange dye useful in painting complicated patterns on the hands, feet, and face. This is not only used to make people look beautiful, but to protect them against evil spirits.

We should also talk about scarification -- an art form that has people scarring their own bodies. It's mainly the Nuba, Nuer and Mossi people who practice this in Africa.

The Mossi people of Burkina Faso originally used facial scarring to mark the faces of boys who were then not allowed to be sold into slavery. They used a method that removed a small portion of skin in order to create a dip in the skin.

Young Nuba girls have a pattern of raised scars carved into the skin of their upper bodies. The scars are introduced over several years, from puberty to the birth of their first child.

The scars are considered beautiful and mark a young woman's eventual change from girlhood to womanhood.

Thankfully, today this practice is dying out. The majority sees it as cruel, and many young Africans who may leave their villages don't wish to have their faces and bodies marked for life.

Jane Bingham's work on African Body Art is a personal inspiration. She's educated so many on what has always been a mystery and continues to remain somewhat mysterious to this day!

• Bingham, Jane (2005). African Art & Culture (World Art & Culture), Illustrated Edition. Heinemann/Raintree. ISBN 1844210448.

I'm so grateful to Jane Bingham for inspiring me to create this page on the body art of Africa.

Click the "Art For Sale" button on the menu to the left and browse my catalog of art. You just might be surprised to find some body art ideas there!

Return to the tribal art designs page from
this African body art page.