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Published: March 17th 2008
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Students Strike!
For more pictures, follow the link in the text~ Happy St Patrick's Day to those at home, our version of celebrating St Pattys day took the form of a student protest that shut down the campus! It was a very large, lively, exciting and (most importantly) peaceful protest. The issue was the same as last time- the administration has still not helped students get their promised housing and this time the strike was successful at causing enough ruckus to bring the intended attention on themselves. I got some great shots from in front, behind, above, and within the crowd, the best of them are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpruce/StudentStrikeAtUKZN
But this post is about a field trip that I went on last week with my ceramics class to the Mgwaze clan homestead, about 3 hours outside of Pietermaritzburg. The Clan is the subdivision of tribe, which is Zulu. The clans are divided by last name and are extended families- in this traditional lifestyle, the extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers) all live in a small gathering of mud huts (homestead) in the rural mountainous area of KwaZulu. The Mgwaze clan women specialize in beautiful pottery.
Juliet, our professor, has formed a relationship with
these women and she knows them all by name after coming for so many years. So after the three hour, very bumpy, slightly treacherous ride, we arrived at this wonderful cluster of huts at least an hour from any town or city. The women greeted us warmly, shook our hands, said Sawubona (hello!) and welcomed us in (they spoke no english). The men are out at work during the day, ceramics is a womans job in Zulu culture.
The women dig the clay themselves from a secret area and the pots are vessels of varying sizes. The vessel is for holding utshwala, a Zulu beer, for drinking and ceremony- they can be the size of your fist or the size of a giant beach ball. They had some pots made already and brought them to an area 15 feet outside of the homestead to be fired. They made a bed of dried aloe leaves and placed the pots in it, then they dumped more leaves on top, until the pile was about 2.5 feet high. Then they lit the leaves from the top and let it burn down- it takes about 20-30 minutes to burn and by
Mud huts
This is one of the mud huts, some are painted and several are made of modern cinderblocks. Traditional roofs are thatches, but tin is easier, cheaper, and needs less maintenance. the time its done, the pots are finished. (For any pottery buffs, the clay has a lot of rocks and bits in it and much less water than clay that we buy from a store- so the firing time is much shorter, the heat lower, and the shrinkage rate smaller).
We were then brought into one of the mud huts (this one was square though) for lunch. Men sit on the right and women on the left (this has important traditional logic- the spears were stored at the back of the hut and, if the men had to go to war quickly, they could easily grab the spears with their right hand (most were right handed) and leave quickly to fight). We sat on straw/sisol mats, the men cross legged and the women with their legs together (to open them would be to invite a male inappropriately during a meal).
One woman served us for most of the meal and she did so by bringing around each food item in a small pot around the room- to each person, one by one (men first). We grabbed with our hands and ate from our hands-
Prep for Firing
The bed of aloe leaves and the pots no plates, utensils, tables, chairs, or napkins (though they gave us one towel, I think it was because we are foreigners). The meal was multicourse- first a bean-mush thing, then a bean and mealie (corn) thing, then potatoes, then another mealie thing, then a melon-based porridge thing, then the beef. We were instructed earlier by Juliet that you take a big fist of the food, squeeze it into a sausage shape, and eat it that way- and that it was not rude to say no or pass on something. The food was good, I might not order it in a restaurant, but nothing was gross. Each thing was a little bland, some with a hint of sweetness. We also got to try Utshwala (can anyone tell me what Utshwala is?... thats right! its Zulu beer), which was a little sour but not bad at all.
After the meal, they took out their display of pottery and many of us bought some- the pots were incredible and REALLY cheap (a small/medium pot for R50=6USD; in the US or a gallery/store here, could be 50-250USD). Not to mention, this was so directly supporting artists that each pot had the
Ready for Firing
The aloe kiln is ready name of the woman who made it and when we wanted to know the price, we had to find the woman whose name it was and ask her directly, and hand her the money directly. I bought two small/medium sized pots.
After playing with the kids for a few minutes, we headed back home.
Oh yeah, I didn't get a chance to say that on the way we decided to stop at a street market and I bought a pair of sandals made from car tires for 7USD! they are awesome, though they may take a while to wear in.
I guess thats it- I will be leaving for my spring break tomorrow morning, so it will be a few weeks until I write again. The itinerary is one week in Swaziland, then I hope over to Joburg to meet my mom, we stay the night and catch a plane to Capetown. We spent a few days there and a few days driving back along the sound coast to PMB! Wheh!
cheers
Mark
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MIke Rosenkrantz
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Wonderful
Your writings are just wonderful and the pictures really add to the charm of your writing. What an incredible experience to become a world citizen. Keep writing. Mike