Though there is a code to color beads with specific meanings, there also are varying meanings with subtler versions of colors and color patterns. Again, there are two meanings to colors, a positive and a negative.
Zulu Bead Jewelry Positive Meanings of Colors
Zulu Bead Jewelry Negative Meanings of Colors
Zulu Bead Jewelry Positive Meanings of Colors
- green - contentment, bliss; grass, cattle, earth
- blue - faithfulness; the sky or sea
- red - strong emotion
- black - marriage, reassurance
- white - love
- yellow - wealth, fertility
- pink - adds emphasis to a promise
Zulu Bead Jewelry Negative Meanings of Colors
- green - illness, jealousy, love-sickness
- blue - hostility, ill feelings
- red - anger, impatience
- black - death, sorrow, despair, loneliness
- white - has no negative meaning!
- yellow - badness
- pink - poverty, especially a lack of cattle to be paid as the lobola (the bride-price paid to her parents by the prospective husband)