Lips, noses and ears are pierced during childhood so that they can later wear ornaments to enhance their features, to show tribal identity, and to protect them from dangers such as evil exhaltations and supernatural forces believed to enter through these orifices. Initially the holes are made by the child's mother with a thorn; later they are enlarged with whisps of corn or millet stalk until they are up to 2cm in diameter, large enough to insert a plug of clay, wood, stone or metal.
~ Africa Adorned - Angela Fisher ISBN:1 860460291
