Durban jewellery designer Hlengiwe Dube will show some of her work at the Essence Festival in Durban in November.
When Dube was very young, she would watch her grandmother skilfully doing beadwork.
She would watch her grandmother beading, then wait for her to leave to do other chores.
Her grandmother explained to her that beading was used as a form of communication during courtship. She said: “My grandmother told me that the girl would start with a band made of two strings of white beads to which she attached two beaded rings made in the form of star shapes or just plain beaded loops.
“One of these would have been white, signifying she was still a virgin, and the other would have been green, meaning that although she was still very young she nonetheless accepted his proposal.
“As the relationship continued, she would have added more colours of beaded loops or stars, one colour at a time, as a way of showing the feelings she had for him.
Beading was used as a form of communication during courtship.
Credit: Supplied
“The completed love letter (ucu) would have a safety pin (isipeletu) attached. This would symbolise the love she had for a good man and that she was pinned to the man and they were now together.
“I started working with the Durban African Art Centre at the age of 16, as a sales assistant. I used to check the quality of the beadwork that the women where bringing to the African Art Centre to sell.”
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She noticed that most of the beadwork looked similar, and so approached the centre's director at the time to assist the women providing the products in upgrading the standard of beadwork they were making.
“The first workshop that I facilitated was in 1990, when I was working with women from the Valley of a Thousand Hills and around the Inanda area. That was the beginning for many workshops that I have facilitated.
Dube's craft also contributes to the preservation of African cultures, customs and traditions and it helps ?people understand more about ubuntu.
We need to know our culture, says Jewellery designer Hlengiwe Dube
Credit: Supplied
She is also the author of Zulu Beadwork: Talk with Beads, in which she tells the history of beads and the messages behind the beadwork.
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She has been involved in many development projects locally and internationally, passing on her skills in beadwork and also in telephone wire weaving.
Each time Dube passes on her skill, she always adds to the traditional technique and designs so that pieces remain unique and vibrant. “It has been my dream for our young people to know where we come from, our roots, traditions and cultures.
Each time Dube passes on her skill, she always adds to the traditional technique and designs.
Credit: Supplied
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. We need to know our culture, to acknowledge it, to atone for it where appropriate, and to resolve never to let that awful part of it happen again.”