Vintage Maasai Ceremonial Beaded Necklace Trbal Art Kenya For a woman Maasai beads represent her wealth. The colors and patterns represent clan affiliations and hold various meanings. Blue symbolizes God in the sky where he lives. Green represents vegetation after a rainfall and a symbol of peace. In the nineteenth century beads were produced mostly from local raw materials, clay shells, ivory, bone, wood, charcoal, copper or brass. In the late nineteenth century trade with the European made glass beads in available in Africa.