Mdukatshani - Fifty Years of Beading

GRADUATION DAY April 2000 In August 1999 30 young makotis gathered at the Learning Centre to start a ten weeks training course in beaded copper eggs. They were a generation who had never been to school, and were nervous. The six teachers standing by were nervous too. They were veterans who had learnt with Ellen, and remembered their skirts full of broken eggs. Would their students do any better? The day started with a prayer to the prophet Isaiah Shembe, and then the women sat in silence as the work was handed out. The first lesson was learning to use pliers to cut the copper into equal lengths. A murmuring rose among the trees as the women picked up their tools. Was something wrong? But were speaking to their family spirits, their amadlozi asking them to guide their hands and help them. Here and there a name could be discerned in the muttering. The spirits who were going to be present on the course would include some famous men of honour. We would never have attempted formal training had it not been for a grant of R80 100 from the Masibambane Trust. Marisa had introduced us to Solveig Piper, the Director, and Mathebe Mkonyane, her deputy, who were easy guests but exacting critics of our arithmetic. After a visit to the farm to check us out, they asked for a change in our proposal. We were asking for too little, not too much, and we were probably selling our eggs at a loss. When the grant arrived, it was subject to two conditions: We would repay the grant with a one Rand tax on every egg sold, and we would accept the Trust’s recommendations on pricing.*

The teachers (from the left): Busisiwe Buthelezi, Siphokuhle Mvelase, Khombisile Mvelase, Hlekelaphi Dladla, Bandlile Mtshali and Kanyisile Masoka.

Teachers and students gather for a group photograph at the Learning Centre on graduation day.

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Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading