Meaning of Symbols

The Zulu beadwork language is deceptively simple: it uses one basic geometric shape, the triangle, and seven basic colors. The triangle’s 3 corners represent the father, mother, and child. A triangle pointing down represents an unmarried woman; pointing up it represents an unmarried man. Two triangles joined at their bases represented a married woman, while two triangles joined at their points, in an hourglass shape, represent a married man.

Meaning of Bead Colours
The seven basic colors can be used to convey a negative or positive meaning, as follows:

Black – marriage, regeneration sorrow, despair, death
Blue – fidelity, a request ill feeling, hostility
Yellow – wealth, a garden, industry, fertility thirst, badness, withering away
Green – contentment, domestic bliss illness, discord
Pink – high birth, an oath, promise poverty, laziness
Red – physical love, strong emotion anger, heartache, impatience
White – spiritual love, purity, virginity (no negative meaning)