As the world is going wireless at a dizzying speed, one Zulu province in South Africa is
going backward––using once-discarded telephone wire to bring some much-needed modern
prosperity to its beleaguered people, while still weaving in the communal traditions of
the past.
The name “AITA” is township slang from the New South Africa; it’s a cheerful greeting between friends and strangers alike.
In the Heart of Zululand, Women Use Wire to Connect in a Wireless World
If you look at what discarded plastic-coated telephone wire looks like on the ground, it’s an unsightly mess––good for only one thing: disposal. Yet for the men and women living in the Zulu province of KwaZulu–Natal, a proud community of people who once felt “disposed of” themselves during the bitter and racially divisive years of apartheid, discarded telephone wire has evolved into “ a thing of beauty is a joy forever” ––in a way that would surprise even the poet who penned those words.
As the story goes, on a warm and muggy mid-1960s’ night, a lone Zulu migrant night watchman, perhaps bored with counting the always-plentiful African ant-mugging flies crawling along the walls of the buildings, spied something that immediately fired up his imagination: multicolored plastic telephone wire. Creative inspiration gave way to action as the former basket weaver-turned-watchman ripped out the wiring from the walls, then passed the rest of the night happily weaving unique and colorful decorations for his traditional Zulu knobkerries (traditional night-sticks) and izimbenges (beer pot lids).
Monday Morning Mishap
Needless to say, when employees came to work on Monday, phone service was noticeably absent. As fate would have it, a temporary loss of contact with the outside world––-and, no doubt, the watchman’s job––was a small price to pay for the discovery of a new artistic medium that would soon supplant the more traditional and arduous form of basket weaving for which the Zulu people were known. Before long, other basket makers in the region caught on to the commercial prospects of wire basket weaving, making the practice of “precycling” copper telephone wire the new national pastime for starving artists everywhere.
From Beer to Bowls: Hops Off to Progress
Today, Zulu night sticks and beer pot lids have been replaced by far more profitable bowls and platters. Each piece is a unique work of art and a vibrant new take on the once labor-intensive practice of grass-weaving baskets. Those baskets were challenging to produce mainly because of the difficulty in coloring native plants, grasses, and other natural fibers.
In contrast, the Zulu artisans of AITA eagerly embrace using plastic-coated copper telephone wire (now legally acquired by the artisans through custom manufacturers), for one, because the vivid colors of these manufactured materials can never be replicated in nature. Called “mbenge” in their native language, the colorful and celebrated stunning works of functional art are as beautiful as they are practical. Besides being tightly woven and very durable, each bowl is crafted in an explosion of color and intricate design; its whirls and circles are considered culturally significant, indicating a new baby, needed rains, a plentiful harvest, or just plain good news.
Good news is just what the mbenges have brought to communities of Zulu families in
KwaZulu–Nata, a province rife with unemployment. Many of the AITA weavers there are widows, their husbands often the victims of AIDS, malaria, or intertribal warfare. Even those who still have husbands often lose them to long commutes to the big cities where most of the work is found.
Smiles all Around, Learning Abounds
Yet despite their enormous challenges, women weavers like Jaheni Mkhize and Zeni Sabeth are a happy, openly demonstrative, and empathetic people. You’d be hard pressed to find one who won’t easily lend you a smile––and their understanding. No doubt one reason for their buoyant spirit is their resilient character, forged in adversity, that enables them to turn suffering into strength. But now it’s also because their tight-knit community has one of the few stable sources of employment in the entire province.
Wire basket weaving has evolved into both a marketable trade and a rewarding art form––a critical source of income that allows the Zulu people to preserve the family unit by living and working at home. By eliminating long commutes, parents can raise their children properly, keeping customs and culture intact while giving their children and grandchildren one critical benefit of prosperity their own parents were never able to give them––an education.
Bowling over the Art World
Prosperity has conferred another unexpected Western “benefit” for the Zulu artisans: celebrity status. As a result of their beautiful creations, a few of the artisans have become international renowned in the art world, their baskets being proudly displayed in collections and exhibitions world wide. Clearly they love what they do, and it shows.
Telephone wire––once a conduit used to connect human voices across thousands of miles in order to extend communities––has become a conveyance for a new form of human expression that now extends across the globe. Through the unique and beautiful art form of mbenge making, discovered during one of the darkest periods of their history, AITA’s Zulu artisans are skillfully weaving important symbols of a proud and colorful past with the geometric expressions of a bold and hopeful future, then joyfully sharing their story with the rest of the world.
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