All Dolled Up
The Wonderful Beaded Dolls of Africa’s Ndebele People
Known for their colorful and distinctive culture, the Ndebele are one of the smallest of seven tribes in South Africa. The Ndebele and the Zulu are descendents of the Nguni, an ancient group of people who lived in the Great Lakes area of East Africa, and the Ndebele speak a language similar to that of the Zulu. Their homeland is in the northeastern part of South Africa, where they live in a homestead or cluster of huts called a “stad.”