Mdukatshani - Fifty Years of Beading

SPRINGVALE We were already having permit problems at Springvale where the Ixopo Magistrate invoked a little- known law to prevent us entering the Mission without a permit, and when we applied for a permit, it was refused. This meant the end of our agricultural work on the mission, but we couldn’t abandon the crafters. We retreated, but not far. The district road was legally “white” and there was space to camp on the verge. For the next five years we operated from the roadside at two sites in white farming country. In summer when the mealies stood high we had a toilet. In winter, when the fields were bare, we walked and walked and walked. So did the crafters, and the real burden fell on them. They had to come long distances to meet us, women with babies on their backs and small children in tow waiting for hours in a queue that seemed endless before going home long after dark. Distance was not the only problem. Working from home affected quality as well as deadlines. We never knew when a finished piece would arrive, or if it would match the order. A woman was easily distracted at home. Beads would get lost, colours mixed, and there was always the problem of thread. It was too thin, too thick, too hard, or too springy which meant knots wouldn’t hold when tested. The women had their own solution. They unravelled the plastic thread in green cabbage bags. It looked strong, but it was brittle and snapped – which led to hundreds of reject articles, a bitter experience that cost us money we didn’t have, and left the women despairing.

The Springvale women were amaBhaca , with ochred hair worn in ringlets, very different from the Msinga women.

Beaded headdresses were common to all diviners, although this woman’s raised “horn” says her tribal group is amaBhaca .

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Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading