Origins of the Wood Badge Beads

The origin of the Wood Badge beads is a necklace once worn by Dinizulu, a Zulu chief. Baden-Powell was on a military campaign in Zululand, now part of South Africa. He pursued Dinizulu for some time but never managed to catch up with him. Baden-Powell is said to have found the necklace when he came to Dinizulu's deserted mountain stronghold. The necklace, 12 feet long, consisted of more than 1000 acacia wooden beads. Such necklaces were known as iziqu in Zulu.

Actually, it is doubtful that the beads ever belonged to Dinizulu. B-P's letters and diaries of the time record him removing beads from a dead African girl, with no mention of Dinizulu. Over time, the so-called "history" of the beads has changed to suit the intended audience. After the Second World War the origins of the 'Wood Badge' started to cause embarrassment. To have stolen a Zulu ruler's property was thought underhanded and unpleasant, as was the idea of the founder of a worldwide multiracial brotherhood fighting against Africans. So it became policy within the Movement to claim that Baden-Powell had been given the necklace by Dinizulu. 'This Change,' wrote the Deputy Chief Scout in 1959, 'was made first in The Gilwell Book and gradually in all our literature' Other "official" biographers of Baden-Powell, such as William Hillcourt, repeat uncritically B-P's 1919 story (in which Hillcourt only implies that the beads "must" have been Dinizulu's)

Much later, Baden-Powell looked for a distinctive award for the participants in the first Gilwell course. He constructed the first Wood Badge using two beads from Dinizulu's necklace, and threaded them onto a leather thong given to him by an elderly African in Mafeking.

--WB Scribbler