Kunshi
The Hausa custom of decorating the bride's hands and feet with dark henna, in the days before the wedding.
Also: kunshi (Hausa), kunshi
Kunshi is the Hausa name for henna used as bridal decoration in northern Nigeria and Niger. It is a ritual in the women's side of the wedding, in which relatives and a specialist apply the paste to the bride's hands and feet, often in dense black designs. It belongs to a series of events before the Islamic wedding, which is the fatiha, held at a mosque. Kunshi is usually paired with lalle, the henna itself, and the care taken to make the bride beautiful is part of the joy.
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa