ILEKE-IDI (BEBE) - Waist bead is either called 'ILEKE IDI' or 'BEBE'

I read this in one of Achebe''s books I think it is in THINGS FALL APART if my memory still serves me right.. It is this type of cultural coloration in his style that made him unique as a scholar, , who played a pioneering role in developing Nigerian literature and poetry. Waist bead is either called 'ILEKE IDI' or 'BEBE'


As for the questions, it depends on individuals as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I do know that a lot of parents still wear it for girl-kids back at home, , What nobody can dispute, and as depicted in those few lines, is that bead-wearing in the waist is erotic as it arouses s3xual desire in both the person wearing it , the person seeing it. The erotism is more felt by men who touch it. The feeling is electrical in men when they touch waist bead. Merely seeing this picture is sufficiently arousing Isn't it?. If it were 'lagidigba' that is on that waist, touching it would almost be like really doing the thing. In this particular picture, wearing jeans pant at the bot coupled with the tiny size of the bead mellow down the erotism

The sensation of bead-wearing is reflected in the juju song of Jossy Friday who sang;

'Ileke idi lowo mi kan leni ki nwa re'le Oba'

Same is reflected in Yoruba proverb that;

'Omo eni ko se idi bebere ka fi ileke si idi omo elomiran; teni-n-teni';

And by late IK Dairo;

'Bebe yi ga o
Sisi je n-dami-ra'

There is also the folk-song

Ileke so, ileke so wo-wo, iyawo la ngbe o'

Pa Joseph Fagbola