During the initiation, women shave off the men’s hair and paint their heads with red paint. Toya, a former Maasai warrior interviewed by filmmaker Ton van der Lee, reports that young men who are undergoing the ritual of initiation into manhood fashion headdresses made out of lions’ manes or bird feathers. The Masaai decorate their bodies with beads and jewelry, and wear plugs that greatly enlarge their earlobes. Serengeti area, Tanzania – Photo: Marco BoriaĪccording to a national census held in 2009, in Kenya, the Maasai tribe numbers about 840,000 people. Maasai Face Painting Young Maasai, not yet warrior, in traditional face paint. Among the Pondo people of South Africa, spiritual leaders paint their faces and bodies white because this establishes a mystical connection between them and their ancestors. Once the ritual is over, they’re painted red. Boys entering adolescence undergo a ritual in which they’re separated from the rest of their tribe and embrace the mentorship of an older man. The Xhosa tribe of South Africa also use face paint as a rite of passage. The decorations are sometimes painted over their eyebrows, the bridge of their noses, and cheeks. Face Painting in South Africaįace painting, or umchokozo, plays a big role in Xhosa culture, and women decorate their faces with white or yellow ochre, and use dots to make patterns on their faces. The higher your rank is, the more elaborate and complicated your face paint will be. It is also interesting to mention that tribal art differs depending on a person’s rank in society. Purple commonly means royalty and luxury while yellow is used for joy, energy and warmth, Red stands for danger and blue denotes peace, calmness and confidence. Each colour and each symbol has a certain meaning.īlack is used to display power, evil, death and mystery, while grey indicates security, authority and stability.

In this context, we can mention that the various patterns and paints of the over 3000 African tribes are really different.įuthermore, face paint is made out of clay in different colours.

It also functions as social marker, distinguishes boys from men, men from older men or outsiders from members of the tribe. Specific colors are used to indicate certain periods in a person’s life, such as puberty, courting, and marriage, among other things. Traditionally, Oil, clay, and chalk are the most common paint ingredients, but the Dinka of southern Sudan have in the past used ash, cattle dung, and urine to make their face paint. The makeup, often consisting of face paint, is used for many different reasons and can signify many different things such as religious, recreational and traditional reasons and also military purposes. Tribal makeup plays an important role in the various groups. Ingredients | Uses | Significance of African Face Paintings

Tribal body paint patterns