I'd love to know more about these beads - I find it intriguing that they are the same short oblate size & shape as a lot of phenolic resin beads that are sourced in the same general area - Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, etc.

The "Gabon ebony" wood is from the rainforest areas in West Africa, to the south of Mali - Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, etc. So I'd be interested to know if the wood is shipped north to be made into beads in Mali, or whether the beads are made where the wood is procured.

I also found out that this particular ebony tree is endangered - so actually I wish I'd known that before purchasing them, since I think they are newly made and not antiques.