JOHANNESBURG - The Ndebele history spanning from the days of Mzilikazi and his many wives and children in Natal, South Africa, is being exhibited at the Mary Fitzgerald Square, Johannesburg in art and craft predominantly created by women from Mpumalanga. The Mzilikazi large family, which spread to many parts of South Africa and Zimbabwe, following differences over inheritances pertaining to chieftainships, has maintained and uphold its traditions including the way women dress.
An official said the women’s way of dressing showed her marital status and age.
However, most women, particularly the younger age groups, were no longer sticking to the traditional ways of dressing in South Africa, like in many African countries due to modernisation. They see the cultural dressing as old fashioned. However, most of these young people wore the dresses during national occasions.
Fikile Mnguni, the manager of the Ndebele Art and Culture, said in an interview the Ngunis who were the great-grandsons of Mzilikazi, were still following their traditions of yesteryear in South Africa and their relatives in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe regularly visited their relatives in Mpamalanga for initiation periods.
She would not explain the relationship between the Ngunis of Mozambique and Malawi.
The art and handicraft exhibition, which this year had been planned to coincide with the FIFA World Cup period, has been in existence since about six years ago.
The exhibition had been sponsored by Aid To Artisans South Africa(ATASA), a United States of America Organisation.
Mnguni said the exhibition had kept the artists, most of whom were elderly women busy. These women had also showcased their products at various exhibition venues internationally including countries like Japan, United States and Italy.
The exhibitions were also staged in Kwazulu Natal in the Eastern Cape and Lesotho.
The art and craft products made by the women include flower pots, carved products, purses, blankets, baskets, scarves and jewellery.
The raw materials for weaving are available in Lesotho where sheep are reared in huge numbers while the other items such as flower pots or purses are decorated with seed of rapoko and maize as well as beads. Baskets and related items were made from trees which grow wild in Kwazulu-Natal.
Mnguni told ***The Zimbabwean*** that there were plenty of those trees in South Africa because they were found near water. “And on conservation of such trees, she added, “people are told to conserve these trees because they are doing a big job.”
Post published in: Arts