New Delhi, Jan 4 (IANS) She looks at the shimmering piles of Gujarati shawls, embroidered with coloured thread and mirrors, in awe.
‘India is a sensory overload. We don’t have so many textiles, not to this extent, in Africa as one finds in India. The tonalities of colours are wider and the textures are so different,’ Eugenie Drake, a leading South African handicrafts promoter and designer, who is in India with a crafts showcase from her country, told IANS.
Drake is exhibiting her wares — a quaint medley of bead necklaces, Zulu love girdles, ethnic love letter pendants, leg-ring bangles, embroidered fabrics and ethnic silverware — at the 25th Dastkari Haat Samiti in the capital’s Dilli Haat Jan 1-14 as part of the ‘Handcrafted Promises’ India-Africa cultural initiative.
Drake manages ‘Piece’, a 10-year-old niche crafts boutique, in Johannesburg that combines traditional crafts from the ethnic Zulu, Ndebele and Venda communities of South Africa with contemporary western motifs to create wearable accessories.
‘The big thing about our creations is to make as many young people wear what we make because they are contemporary… and yet at the same time the grandmother of a girl who wears our products feels proud because she sees her culture reflected in the child,’ Drake said.
Citing examples, she said: ‘I make woven grass-fabric and bead bangles inspired by the traditional leg-rings (chunky anklets) which no one wears now. I have designed necklaces by improvising on the traditional Zulu betrothal necklace and coloured love letter pendants.’
The colours of her beads convey different messages, the crafts protagonist said.
‘Zulu couples earlier conducted their courtships with love letter bead pendants — small square multi-coloured charms that dangle from neck-pieces,’ Drake said.
The size of the African beads vary from tribe to tribe, she said.
Drake’s inspirations are not confined to South Africa alone; she often crosses the border to ‘Swaziland, Namibia and Botswana to collect old designs’.
Her list of buyers include the likes of Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Elton John and Oprah Winfrey.
The lanky crafts activist dresses in styles reflecting the funky fashion of her country — a bowl-shaped Zulu married woman’s hat, grass bangles and colourful bead necklaces contrasting with a black skirt and black stockings.
‘The first thing one notices in India is the quality of dedication of the crafts artists. They work incredibly hard and I would imagine that they do not work for a huge amount of money… There is a certain pride in them in their traditions. The cultures in India are different and yet they complement each other. Yet, they remain unique to an area. In Africa, we have not been able to work so closely together…,’ Drake said.
‘I want craftspeople, who take pride in their work, to generate an income from what they do,’ the crafts activist said.
Drake plans to carry home a consignment of Gujarati shawls with a DVD of the life story of the Indian weaver, whom she first met in Addis Ababa in 2011, to tell buyers about her ‘Indian experience’.
Drake, who descends from Scottish and French stock, identifies more with the culture of her country than of her ancestors.
‘More and more white Africans are learning about their ethnic cultures and would wear something traditional (jewelry) out of respect for the local culture to parties…For me, South Africa has been an amazing journey to know my identity and culture. It has redefined who I am,’ she said, pointing to an elaborate South African Flag necklace which is sought after as a ‘culture mascots’ by non-ethnic South Africans.
Drake said the ‘ethnic communities with whom I have worked have taught me more than I could teach them’.
‘They have taught me courage, strength, respect for humanity and sharing,’ the activist said.
Drake is looking to learn ‘natural dyeing techniques’ from India.
‘We use chemical dyes and we cannot afford to pollute our continent any more. I want to see if we can do an exchange programme — take some Indian craftspeople to South Africa and take some South African crafts to India… Exchange has to be a two-way process,’ Drake said.
(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)
