South Africa: Dinah and the Ndebele Bead Women.

Gianturco, Paola and Toby Tuttle. “South Africa: Dinah and the Ndebele Bead Women.” In Her Hands Craftswomen changing the world, Forward by Alice Walker, The Monacelli Press, 2000, pp.114 – 167

• Weltevrede – 3 hours North East of Johannesburg.

• “Dutch and German settlers, whose descendants are referred to as Afrikaaners,” – “in 1882nAfrikaaners dynamited their food storage caves to starve them, killed their leaders, razed their crops, confiscated their land, and assigned them to five years of indentured labor – five years that, in fact, lasted over a century.” 117

• “Ndebele women reacted against the Afrikaners’ effort to decimate ethnic identity by resurrecting the distinctive beaded apparel that their foremothers began creating in the sixteenth century” 117

• “Beadwork has influenced more than murals (…); it is centrally important to Ndebele history, rituals, cultural and political identity, and commerce.” 117

• “Dolls play many rolls in this culture. (…) Today, dolls also make money for Ndebele bead women.” 117-118

• “Today, she can make three dolls a day and earns more money than her husband does as a house painter.” 125