Examples Of Fulani (African) Female Beaded Or Ornamental Hairstyles (videos & quotes)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides information about ornamental hairstyles of Fulani (Fula, Fulbe, Peul) women and showcases four videos that include some Fula hairstyles as worn by women in several West African nations.

The content of this post is provided for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

Note: In addition to the female hairstyles, I'm also interested in the vocal & instrumental music, traditional instruments, dancing, and clothing of the females and males in these videos.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those featured in these videos. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of this video on YouTube.

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GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT FULANI PEOPLE
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_people
"The Fula people or Fulani or Fulɓe (Fula: Fulɓe; French: Peul; Hausa: Fulani; Portuguese: Fula; Wolof: Pël; Bambara: Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnolinguistic groups in Africa, numbering approximately 40 million people in total. They form one of the most widely dispersed and culturally diverse of the peoples of Africa.[16] The Fulani are bound together by the common language of Fulfulde, as well as by some basic elements of Fulbe culture, such as The pulaaku , a code of conduct common to all Fulani groups.

A significant proportion of their number, (an estimated 13 million), are nomadic, making them the largest pastoral nomadic group in the world.[17] Spread over many countries, they are found mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, but also in Sudan and Egypt. [18]"...

INFORMATION ABOUT FULANI FEMALE BEADED HAIRSTYLES
From http://africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/hairstyles-in-african-culture
"Hairstyles in African Culture"
"A coiffure is perfected by various decorations: cowries, beads, mother-of-pearl buttons, medals, pieces of silver, amber balls, metal rings, and pins of wood, bone or ivory. In the West African Sahel, the Fulbe and Peul (Fulani) cultivate impressive hairstyles.

For purposes to do with magic, a man or woman may also attach amulets to certain hairdos. The more elaborate coiffure includes braids, crests, curls, cascades, chignons, and vertical cornrows."...
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That blogpost includes additional information and photographs of other African hairstyles.from the book Hair in African Art and Culture, Edit by Roy Sieber and Frank Herreman, The Museum for African Art, New York, 2000.

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From http://www.webpulaaku.net/defte/adepegba/body_ornaments.html
C.O. Adepegba "Decorative Arts of the Fulani Nomads"
Ibadan. Ibadan University Press. 1986. 48 p.

Body Ornaments of the Fulani Nomads [with photographs]
...."In northeastern Nigeria, and in fact from Borno down to the Cameroons, nomadic Fulani women prefer to pack a substantial amount of their hair into the centre of the head like a flat bed stretching from the forehead to the back with hanging braids to the sides and the back.

In other parts of Nigeria, the female Fulani nomads use simple thick, hanging braids, usually one on each side of the face and a big one or some smaller ones at the back. The focus on the sides and back of the head in their hair styling is to ensure that the ornamental purpose for which the hair is done, is not defeated, as elaborate designs on top of the head will be covered by their usual headloads.

Similarly hanging braids, two falling on the cheeks, and ornamented with a white bead under the chin are reported to be worn by Fulani women of Dori who have just had their first baby, in other words, recently married, as Fulani women are not considered properly married until they have their first babies. The hanging braids together with the braids on the nape of her neck, which look like multiple fringes ornamented with stones, are said to symbolize wisdom and calmness, expedient of a new mother of a family 5. But such symbolic association does not seem to hold for such braids of Nigerian Fulani women. This is not to say that special hair styles are not made for that stage of life, the time for their proper marriage.

But in Nigeria styles similar to the one described above are adopted irrespective of the woments [sic] ages and number of children. Women who have apparently passed childbearing age also wear such styles (plate 6), to which most of them also add according to their different tastes, beads, buttons, cowrie shells and various pieces of bright metals, whose colours contrast sharply with their black hair.

The braids of the hair, too, are in most cases not the natural hair of the wearers. According to Eve de Negri, nomadic Fulani make use of false hair, which is generally believed to have been passed down from generation to generation. The false hair is said to be intertwined with the wearer's own hair to give the long braids. However, in many cases, the braids are not attached to the natural hair, but made into wig forms attached to round strings with which they are worn or tied to the head....
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Related link
http://www.the-nigeria.com/2011/10/fulani-woman-cultural-stylish-hair-and.html#.U7MLiI1OVv4 "Fulani woman: Cultural Stylish Hair and Costumes"

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FEATURED VIDEOS
These videos are presented in chronological order wit the video with the oldest posting date presented first.

Example #1: Fula - Sare Mamudou(near Basse) [The Gambia]



platini64 Uploaded on Jun 9, 2010
Fula - Sare Mamudou(near Basse) Feb 2010

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Example #2: AFRICAN MUSIC SOGHA FULBE [Niger]



Sankulay Jallow, Uploaded on Feb 22, 2011

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Example #3 Viviane - Kumu Neexul [Senegal]



gelongalvideo , Uploaded on Apr 28, 2011

Viviane dans toute sa créativité. Kumu Neexul entre tradition et modernisme. Pour le plaisir des fans de la reine du Jolof Band. Réalisée au Sénégal par Gelongal

Google Translate From French to English:

Viviane in all its creativity. Kumu Neexul between tradition and modernism. To the delight of fans of the Queen of Jolof Band. Conducted in Senegal by Gelongal
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/viviane-chidid-ndour-kumu-neexul-video.html for a pancocojams post about this song. A commenter in another example of that same video wrote that Viviane Ndour is dressed like a Fula but the song is in Wolof (another West African traditional language) and not Fula. Another commenter in yet another video of this same song wrote that she is Tukulor and that the clothing the women wore was the same as that worn by Tukulor people. A Britannica article indicates that were greatly influenced by Tukulor peoples, so both of these commenters are probably correct.

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Example #4: Fulani music video - Love that Never Ends [Burkina Faso]



Stephen Davies, Published on Jun 23, 2014

Moumounie Bande sings 'Yidde Nde Timmata' (Love that Never Ends) from her album 'Alla yo Lobbo' (God is Good). Moumounie Bande and her husband Zakariya Bah are Fulani artists living in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Video filmed in a Fulani village near Lumbila, 20km north of Ouagadougou.

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