Beyond ‘Nourishing the Soul of a Nation’: Craft in the Context of South Africa

Abstract

There has always been a close link between craft and the economic empowerment of marginalised people in developing world countries. However, the South African government has recently taken an explicit step forward in optimising the contribution of craft as a powerful engine of economic growth and promoting development in a globalising world. The traditional paradigm of NGOs working with community based organisations to instigate craft interventions is changing, no more so than in South Africa.

This paper gives a brief overview of the context of craft in South Africa, focusing on two current grassroots craft producer groups in the Kwa-Zulu Natal region - the Siyazama Project and Umcebo Trust - and discusses the future of craft in South Africa. It stems from my practice-based PhD researching the role of practice in collaboration between designers and craft producers in South Africa.
The Siyazama Project was founded in 1999 to inform and educate a small group of rural women traditional bead doll makers on the concerns and taboos surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Today the project functions as a bead craft collective. Umcebo Trust was set up in 2003 as a non-profit organisation and has recently taken the decision to revise this and become a ‘for profit’ business, although their core philosophy of empowering those marginalised in society to develop their creativity as a means of development and income generation stays the same.

This paper examines these current craft methodologies and investigates whether they are able to address the South African government’s assertion that craft and the creative industries can move
‘beyond nourishing the soul of a nation’ (DAC 2011, p.7).