Mdukatshani - Fifty Years of Beading

OUR GUYS They came at different times for different reasons, and they didn’t plan on staying long. It was a bit embarrassing, doing crafts. They needed the work, and some had really good hands – but crafts were for women not for men. It helped that they were working with wire. Traditionally metal was a male material. They liked the copper, with its male qualities, the unyielding strength that calloused their hands. Beads were only there for decoration, an addition to the wire, not part of is complexity, the inner resistance that held a bowl intact. They might have stayed longer had the orders been permanent, but craftwork could never offer certainty, and we let them go with regret.

Mzonzima Dladla was a gifted weaver when he decided to take the path to the city, a rite of passage for local boys.

Mgongo Ngubane’s father was shot when he was three. He never intended to work on crafts, but is today one of the project’s stars.

Canake Mbatha joined the craft group after his father was killed in an ambush.Today he works as a security guard at a local school.

Zamani Madonsela now has a permanent job as driver for the Mdukatshani Rural Develpment Trust.

Gidli Mbatha and Jobe Sithole were part of our childrens’ craft group. Although Gidli struggled to produce quality work, Jobe had his bowls exhibited in London when he was only 12. Gidli is now in the city, while Jobe is at home after a breakdown.

Fiyani Masondo had been a farm labourer all his life when he started crafts. He left the district when orders became scarce.

Originally from Maria Ratschitz, Mlamuli Magasela has retired on Mdukatshani as a pensioner.

Gili Nzimande learnt to fend for himself after his mother was shot when he was small. He eventually attached himself to a grandmother who was chased out of the district for stealing cattle in 2004.

Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading

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