African body painting culture

Body painting is one of the significant African cultures. It is beautiful, meaningful, and speaks volumes about an event or ceremony. Body painting, and body art in general, is an age-old practice that has survived to this present time.

Body painting is a colorful art used by various African tribes and cultures to celebrate, mourn and wage war. The art is normally done on the face and sometimes on all the exposed parts of the body such as the arms, the torso, the back, and the legs.

The practice might have become popular due to the fact that, traditionally, many African tribes wear little clothes to cover their bodies, leaving their skin exposed. Hence, wearing colorful paints on these exposed parts of the body can make up for clothes.

Traditionally, body paint was made from natural ingredients and smoothed on the skin with fingers, sticks, or grasses. Clay, oil, and chalk were the most common paint ingredients, but the Dinka of southern Sudan have in the past used ash, cattle dung, and urine to make their face paint. (Reference encyclopedia.com)

As part of our discussion on this topic, let’s mention some tribes that do body painting.