Makhanda

ART

Traditional beadwork: Love letters, crafted by hand

Article by
Taylor Pastrick

Video by
Odeya Pinkus

Nothemba Makinana has been selling her beadwork at Under the Arch outside Rhodes University since 1992. Right outside the gates of the university on the grass, she lays a blanket down and spreads her items out. On this day, students visiting from out of town are her only customers.

She uses thread (which she refers to as cotton), wool, elastics, wire and beads to hand-make items such as jewelry, hats and bags. Her work ranges from 20 rand (about $1.50) for a bracelet to 50 rand (about $4) for a long necklace. Beadwork, once a popular expression of the culture, has died down in popularity, a fact Makinana ruefully accepts and hopes to combat.

Makinana refers to the beadwork as love letters, crafted by hand. What she does in minutes will take hours for the beginner students she’s coaching. She also notes that every color used has a meaning and that the color you wear reveals characteristics about you. As examples, she said that white is for pureness, red is blood, green indicates that you are flourishing and gold shows wealth.

“They find it to be a waste of time. But it’s important because it’s from our grandmothers and grandfathers.”

“Not so many people do it,” she said. “They find it to be a waste of time. But it’s important because it’s from our grandmothers and grandfathers.”

Makinana said only about 20 people know how to do beadwork in the Makhanda area. Knowing how important the craft is to the culture, she’s taught her husband and four children how to do the work. In order to keep the expression alive, Makinana recognizes that something needs to be done, and she even has her own solution.

“I want the government to open a school for beadmaking,” she said. When people don’t learn, “then it goes down the drain and we don’t have necklaces.”

These necklaces have a long history.

If people don’t start learning, Makinana said, “that would be bad, that would be very bad. The whole part of our culture would disappear.”

“In the old days they wouldn’t wear clothes, just inkciyo (beads),” Makinana said. “Isidla were worn by men (like loincloths). Women developed big necklaces.” With civilization, things changed. “Cloth, irhonya, our mothers started sewing by hand like a dress.”

These beaded pieces and clothing are still worn at weddings and traditional ceremonies. Hats called isankwane, which Makinana makes, also have a significance in the culture.

“Our fathers wore them for negotiations for marriage,” she said. “If they were not worn, then there were no negotiations. It is still a tradition. If they do not have the hats they are unrespectful, it shows they don’t respect them.”

Still, with so few people having the knowledge and skills, the future of these sacred traditions looks bleak.

If people don’t start learning, Makinana said, “that would be bad, that would be very bad. The whole part of our culture would disappear.”