Mdukatshani - Fifty Years of Beading

There were always slump periods when bead orders were scarce, which is how we came to start on grass mats. Grass was free and readily available, at least in the white farming areas. And that was just the first of the problems. Grass might be free, but it was scarce in tribal areas, and the grass cutting season was short. Tribal law dictated that no grass could be cut from the time the first maize shoots appeared above ground until Good Friday, a law enforced by an eagle-eyed induna who came to our collections to check. Were the mats made of old grass or new? And who had cut the grass under the Landrover? For the women secreted sickles under their skirts to gather small bundles surreptitiously. Cutting grass too soon was said to bring hail, but they were ready to break the rules. We learnt to aid and abet them, choosing a new camp site every month and ordering that a workspace be cleared. It wasn’t an order the induna could countermand, and the women went home with armfuls of summer grasses that produce bands of colour in their mats. Storage was another problem. Most of our orders were for very large mats, and the crafters had no storage space at home. Mats stored on rafters were often gnawed by rats, or discoloured by leaks in the thatch. A small defect could make a mat unsaleable despite heart-breaking weeks of hard work. We paid for them anyway, and tried selling them to friends. It was important not to break a woman’s spirit.

Mdukatshani – Fifty Years of Beading

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