Women put traditional art on limelight

BINGA WOMENStephen Garan’anga Visual Art
It was also a moment of song and dance for a troupe of peace loving and forward moving women in basketry from outer Chilelema village of Binga at the official opening ceremony of their current “Ilala” exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare.

They paraded their performance skills uniquely Tonga, a minority tribe constituting about 2500 people confined in the blazing underdeveloped arid region of northern Matabeleland province.

They were ecstatic to be on the spotlight and in the capital for the first time providing an insight on their way of life especially how they earn their livelihood from their developed intricate patterns of mathematical and geometry measurements and calculations by a people who haven’t acquired formal education in modern day Zimbabwe.

Theirs has to be the uncompromised grip on the old age basketry craft, fishing in Lake Kariba for survival as other means are unviable in a region of perennial food insecurity due to poor soils and agricultural seasons characterised by persistent dry spells.

Extremely poverty stricken and mostly in polygamous marriages, the women’s basketry efforts have to be a collective creative process of a whole village and families relying on the ilala palm tree leaves which they propagate, harvest and process to be ready for use.

Natural dyes of various shades are extracted from barks of specific fruit trees in a gruelling process.

Unfortunately limited knowledge and incapability to access the market for their wares has not alleviated their situation. That is where Kunzwana Women’s Association established in 1995 to equip women and youths with vocational skills, socio-economic advancement, civic development and linkages to sustainable markets got involved to assist the basket makers from Chilelema village.

For the project that resulted in this exhibition at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust and its cooperation with the United Nations Development Program and the Government contributed with the aim to assist peace building, prevention, management and peaceful resolution of conflict to achieve national development priorities.

Its implementing partner Kunzwana Women’s association has been able to capacitate the Chilelema group of women to sustainably access livelihoods through basketry weaving as a strategy for consolidating the peace dividends in their communities.

The National Gallery of Zimbabwe said it was pleased to be associated with the project as it increases and provides much needed insight into the profiles of new emerging women in this sector, the skills level and the transformation taking place in the production techniques and quality of crafts.

In 2014 the National Gallery hosted the “Basket Showcase II” exhibition which contributed to the elevation of some of the country’s basketry skills of various rural groups by collaborating with many creative and innovative international and local artists. They have an extensive collection of traditional Zimbabwean baskets which serve to identify and document the various weaving skills spread across the country.

At the “Ilala” exhibition opening three participants were presented with rewards for excelling in their basketry in form of small complete solar system sets for improving the lighting in their homes.

The work in the exhibition consist of pieces of various functions such as domestic utility in home, food processing, storage, laundry baskets, wedding presents, off-set debts, decorations, fruit baskets to mention a few.

The show is part of a marketing venture to seek sustainable niche markets to enable the entirety of the basketry industry to retain economic viability.

Being today’s supreme basket makers for Tonga people emanated from a long history and being mainly confined to the southern Zambezi escarpment were they settled after being displaced to make way for the construction of the Kariba Dam in the mid-fifties.

For the majority, their only language is Tonga which is only spoken in region in Zimbabwe and on the other side of the Zambezi river in Zambia and bit in Malawi. Because of their location to the water bodies where the ilala, the palm tree which leaves are used in the basketry grow well naturally and replanting of the trees has been practiced in the region with impressive plantations.

Crafts have been part of the people in the region and recorded from as far back as the early 19th century.

The territories around the Zambezi River were the destination for many European adventurers, travellers, fortune-seekers and hunters since the early 19th century, meaning there was a market for the products and that also influenced the continued development of amazing skills and work uniquely to the region.

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