The Ndebele are famous for their brightly patterned houses, symbolic beaded garments and ceremonial dolls. I was pleased to find a doll supplier who met my fair trade requirements when I was in S.A.

The dolls makers in this group work out of their rural homesteads which is a vital aspect of fair trade for women. With zero jobs in the rural areas, women are forced to go to Johannesburg to find work. This is a tough city to survive in and the women face terrible hardships there. Also, traditional skills are lost if women leave their communities and this contributes to further social breakdown. Truly, craft production is a vital link in a healthy social fabric of a community.

The most effective economic empowerment groups I've found are those that help women to stay at home where they can care for their children and elders.  The women in this doll making group have been empowered by strong work ethic, consistent quality and fair payment. Their co-coordinator pays the women directly, teaching them to open bank accounts and use bankcards. This has given the women autonomy over their income within families where husbands may feel they have the right to the earnings.

The small beaded angel dolls are made to represent AIDS orphans and those affected by AIDS. They are intended to be a gesture of hope, a prayer of awareness and compassion.

When I first read about the Siyazama traditional beaded Zulu dolls, I was intrigued with the story of these rural, traditional beadmakers and how they started their doll project. I was fortunate to visit the homestead (pictured here) of one of their most noted, award winning doll maker, Lobolile Ximba, in a remote part of KwaZulu Natal, where I bought one of her white angel dolls. Later, I met with Prof. Kate Wells in Durban, who was instrumental in getting the group going.

The doll makers came together in 2002 for an
income-generating project, but so much more happened. A powerful synergy of sitting together to make dolls, share information about HIV/AIDS was a transformational process for them. For the majority of these craftswomen, participation in the Siyazama Project was their first opportunity to hear of AIDS and its complexities other than via gossip and rumor. The doll makers shared the information with the other women, often under opposition and duress from the men. They began to stitch beaded tableaux depicting the struggles of women and their growing rage against the AIDS pandemic. Slowly, as the women held fast, the attitudes slowly changed and AIDS awareness came to their rural community. As the bead maker’s fame and income grew from their doll making, so did the men’s resistance reduce.

The Siyazama Project promotes the role of art and design to affirm indigenous knowledge and skills and as a vehicle to disseminate vital information about HIV/AIDS amongst the most marginalized and vulnerable of people in South Africa – rural women.

The Beaded tableaux and dolls (some of them life sized) of Siyazama have been exhibited at the Michigan State University Museum, in England, Sweden and at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Commissions are place for major collections in the United States and UK.

If you’d like to commission a life sized Zulu doll for a special collection, please let me know.

The Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust is a faith-based ministry that has grown to become a multi-faceted HIV/AIDS project. It receives some funding from the Stephen Lewis Foundation. This ministry attempts to address the impact of the devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic in a practical and holistic way. The mission of the organization is and always has been to show unconditional love to all infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in a practical way. In the course of the Center’s work in the field, it became evident that they had to address people's basic needs and create employment to "put food on the table". Many HIV positive people were developing to full blown AIDS sooner because of malnutrition and poverty. This employment project has more than 250 members registered within the various income generation activities. This beaded jewelry creates income to literally put food on the table and keeps them alive.

I visited the Mapula group in 2009 and was charmed by the needle women who are as delightful as their tapestries. Mapula cloths are beautifully hand embroidered and are highly collectible wall hangings. It was a warm autumn day when we traveled to The Winterveld with Janétje van der Merwe, who works closely with the group to promote their work. It was a delight to give the women gifts of bundles of embroidery floss collected by women in Canada.

Mapula means Mother of Rain and was founded in1991 by Soroptimists International Pretoria and the Sisters of Mercy in the Winterveldt, North West of Pretoria, South Africa. Emily Maluleke carried out embroidery training. There is a great need for an income-generating project in this desperately poor area. There are about 80 women in the group. Their sole income is from the sale of the embroideries that support entire families.

Mapula textiles have become highly collectible and have been exhibited in Greece, Germany and England and have won many awards, including the overall gold at the prestigious FNB Vita Craft Now Millennium Awards Exhibition in S.A.

The Mapula Embroidery Project was represented at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC in 1999.

HRH Queen Elizabeth was presented with a Mapula cloth during her visit to South Africa in 1999 and Mrs. Zanele Mbeki, wife of the past President of South Africa, purchased 65 Mapula cloths as gifts for the spouses of the Visiting Heads of States during the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.  President Obama was presented with a beautiful Mapula tapestry at the White House in 2010.

We shall be visiting this group when we tour South Africa in 2010. Please see the "tour" link at the top.