Beadwork is a well-documented aspect of the socio-political culture of isiZulu-speaking groupings in Southern Africa. Whilst scholarship on beadwork deals largely with the denotative and connotative value it offers wearers, this article’s contribution relates both to its commodification and apolitical value by confronting a general assumption that a beadwork style known as isimodeni [modern beadwork], produced as trinkets for tourists along Durban’s racially stratified Golden Mile since the 1960s, is an authentic representation of a Zulu material culture. The paper probes how traditional beadwork and highly decorated rickshaw carts and pullers were earmarked by tourism officials of the time as commodities that could serve a demand for colourful exoticism and accessible “Zulu” culture. Methodologically, the article draws on a visual analysis of beaded artefacts and photographs, in addition to ethnographic data derived from unstructured interviews with beadworkers on the Durban beachfront, to examine how a beadwork tradition transformed into a “Zulu” tourism commodity, and then transmuted into a nationalised form of ethnic identity and sartorial tradition.

珠饰工作是南部非洲讲伊祖鲁语群体的社会政治文化的一个有据可查的方面。尽管关于串珠工艺的奖学金主要涉及其为佩戴者提供的象征性和内涵性价值，但本文所面临的一般假设是：串珠风格称为isimodeni，这与它的商品化和非政治价值有关。自1960年代以来，在德班种族分层的黄金地带为游客生产的小饰品[现代珠饰]，是祖鲁族物质文化的真实代表。本文探讨了当时的旅游官员如何将传统的珠饰和装饰精美的人力车和拉马车指定为可以满足丰富多彩的异国情调和可访问的“祖鲁人”文化需求的商品。从方法上讲，本文基于对珠饰手工艺品和照片的视觉分析，以及从德班海滨对珠饰工人的非结构化访谈中获得的人种学数据，来研究珠饰传统如何转变为“祖鲁人”旅游商品，然后转变为民族身份和服饰传统的民族化形式。