Mdukatshani - Fifty Years of Beading

Tessa commissioned this photograph to promote the grass bangles. When she started experimenting with fine copper wire she asked the women to try weaving the patterns in metal. Photo credit: Jimmy Limberis

In dry years the women travelled far afield for grass as only one species is pliable for bangles.

The first experimental metal bangles were made with grass pattern weaves.

Some grass weaves were worn as decorations on ochre headdresses, like these pinned front and back on Mpatha Mbatha’s ischolo . The child in her arms is Unokwanda Mbatha. In February 1988 Mpatha, was shot at home. Today her daughter, Ngcengaliphi Mbatha, is one of the project’s finest needlewomen.

By 1981 Tess was a regular visitor to the farm, easing our burdens, lightening our loads, and noticing what we were missing. That woman who had no milk for her baby? That child with a squint? She took over problems and sorted them out, immersing herself in the lives of the valley, walking the footpaths with a slender grace that belied her ability to walk for hours, untiring. She had a lack of fear which she carried with her, dispelling danger with her wonderful giggle, ignoring that assault rifle propped against a door. She became part of the home life of the beaders, taking portraits of the women and children which are the only record local families have of the beloved faces of the past. Without Tessa’s photographs of our early years it would have been difficult to illustrate this report.

Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading

19