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Africa Journal
Weaving a Better Life, One Basket at a Time
The proud Zulu, as the largest tribe in South Africa, have long been associated with their skill and artistry in fashioning baskets from the native plants and grasses of their homeland. Urban Zulu, however, have taken their age-old craftsmanship and applied it to a new medium: recycled telephone wire.
These bright, washable and sturdy baskets, called 'imbenge' in the native language, come in myriad bright colors that are woven into intricately mesmerizing designs. They can be used to store fruit, bread, or other foodstuffs, or simply admired for their decorative beauty.
As with all the products offered in our company, we further two objectives: to provide our clients with beautiful, functional, and unique artworks, and then continue to foster the economic development of our artist weavers, many of whom are trying to lift themselves out of the abject poverty so rampant in South Africa.
The idea to use the recycled, plastic-coated wire for baskets reportedly came from security workers on the graveyard shift in South African factories. To while away the hours, they would often wind and weave brightly-colored bits of telephone wire around their nightsticks.
From then on, a cottage industry was born. Weavers around the country started making bowls, plates, and other decorative pieces of art from what was essentially scrap metal. Some weavers use the designs frequently found in natural fiber baskets, while others create their own bold, new designs: swirling patterns in black-and-white or bright colors.
Whatever the basket looks like, each one comes with a promise: that each weaving is the highest quality possible, and that Spirits in Stone has acted with the utmost sense of regard and fairness to our weavers.
The matriarch of our co-op group learned the craft elsewhere in one of the many urban townships and when she moved back home in the rural area she trained the neighbors and in such a way started her own group.
A home in Zululand (KwaZulu Natal) |
According to the co-op's organizer, "This should give an indication of the need for jobs in our area and is the motivating force for having started the whole project. The Zulus in our area are dependent on money sent by those who can find jobs in the cities (where unemployment is about 30%) and also on welfare payments and grants. The unemployment rate in our area is estimated at 60-70%. So
this little project can make a difference in the lives of many people---both financially and in their dignity."
The joy of earning your own self sufficiency and then buying something with your own earned monies far exceeds that than if the money came from the grandmother or the government.
This co-op is less than 3 years old and has already grown to 120 weavers. The demand for their baskets exceeds supply.
And this is a good story!
We've just added 11 new Zulu telephone wire baskets to our site!
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