Stones telling stories: The role beads have played in Black history
In tribute to Black History month, CBS News Detroit is honoring people right here in the metro area who are not only honoring Black History, but also creating it for future generations.
Whether brass, cooper, glass, stone, or bone, Olayami Dabls, the owner of the MBAD Bead Gallery in Detroit, knows a thing or two about beads.
"Beads still are and were extremely important," said Dabls.
Having worked as an African American historian for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for 15 years, Dabls learned that in Black culture, there's a story behind the stones.
"There is so much information hidden in the beads and how they were used traditionally," he said.
For Africans, beads were multipurpose, used for everything from symbolism, to money, to tribal initiation.
"Beads were used as currency. They were used as initiations, rights of passage, to communicate specific information about the wearer; status," said Dabls.
For him, these small stones are more like time capsules to Black history.
"If you want to learn something about your history to where you can touch something from the past and get a feeling of what a person was actually wearing or actually saw, then beads are a good starting point. Most things from the past are not readily available that have such a strong history line as beads," said Dabls.
M-BAD is an acronym made up of Dabls children's initials. You can find the museum at 6559 Grand River Ave, Detroit, Mich. 48208.