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Comments
Lovely bride and lots of beautiful jewellery!
Do you know, Eva, if today's gold jewellery is also made locally?
At first thanks a lot for the Feature, Sarah.
Thanks Betty for your comment. Mali has a Long Tradition in Gold jewellery, as they have goldmines in Mali. Ancient kings used to literally "bathe" in Gold. However, I Need to say that most of These headdresses are not real Gold, with exceptions of very rich People. The People of the North, that means Timbuktu and beyond (this includes Gao, Kidal) used to wear the same type in silver. But today many things are changing, I have seen photos of a Timbuktu bride (a brother of my husband married her....) and she also had a "Golden" headdress. They are nice, but I personally prefer the silver ones, although These too are probably made of a silver alloy. Yes, they are still made locally, practically every bride (the ones of my Family, and there were lots in the past 13 years) have this headdress for their wedding. They are often also borrowed from others........if the bride's Family cannot afford a new one. As said earlier, it is not only the bride who wears this at the wedding (for us a Little confusing!), but all the ladies attending the wedding who wish to wear such a headdress (mothers-in-law, sisters, Cousins etc.). The bride's Name is by the way "Oum Baby", you look at my Name, and you see that we are Family.....
I love it.
I see your point EVA:
First , just to let you know that the custom of wearing almost the same adornment as the bride when attending the wedding was common in many parts of the world, but usually there exist a single jewel or detail which can allow you to make the difference.
Second, world is changing and everywhere in the world jewelry which was once made from silver is now made of gold to show wealth, the positive thing is that the shape and designs remain the same only the material is changing...in other parts of the world they now lost old designs and only import owestern jewelry or jewelry from mass producing countries such as INDIA for example
It is overwhelming in all over the world that for traditional societies consider gold as a sign f wealth and success so if they can afford it they will buy or only used gilded material
Thanx eva i love these photos, we always rely on pictures from books and old postcards but you have nowadays testimonies, like the way EDITH reports from Tunisia
Thanks Alaa eddine, very interesting. Meanwhile many Cousins of my husband got married and my collection of bridal Pictures has largened. Also I learnt that These bridal headdresses are made of real Gold. they usually stay in the Family and are borrowed to brides for the wedding. I wanted to get one for my collection, but as said, they belong to the families by heritage and stay there. New ones are available but expensive (around Swiss Francs 1000.00). I tried to get one cheaply, of lesser material, but it was not possible!
Eva,nice to see this photo again. Very festive and a good investment. Is this a a bridal gift from the groom to the bride?
@Ingrid, not really - perhaps sometime. Usually These headdresses are in the Family by heritage and lent to brides by the Family (to wear during the wedding). I was told, they are real Gold, so not everyone can afford them. There might be rich grooms who get one newly made for their brides, but this is rare. A new one will cost approx. CHF 1000.00. I have started to collect all the brides photos from Mali with such headdresses, because it really is something Special.