We've seen a number of African lip plate traditions in our Historic Piercing series, and the interesting thing is how varied the reasons are for body modifications.

While the Makololo tribe's history of female lip plates seems to have grown out of a cultural belief of the wonders of the male beard and the gross injustice of the female lack of such a fine, natural decoration (thus the lip plate was a substitute, adding great beauty to the women), the Djinja tribe uses the lip plate as a marker of possession of a wife by her husband.

It's actually the husband himself who will usually pierce his new wife's lip with a straw blade, after which larger and larger plugs will be placed as the lip stretches.