Isabella Fischer's Blog: The Mdantsane Way, page 9

What It Takes To Develop A Child - In Africa, In South Africa, In A Township In South Africa

One Of South Africa's Beautiful Children




Most educational systems all over the world have come to agree over the years, that to develop a child physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually, the child has to be stimulated, educated and guided constantly and patiently in all the four areas. The guidance has to start as early as possible and no means have to be spared. 

The first five years of a child are the years that leave the strongest impact on the child's development. That is the ideal. And this ideal supposes, that to do this the necessary means are available in each school, preschool and in each creche. Parents and teachers work together for this ideal (in the ideal case). Both parties have at least agreed on the way forward.




In Europe parents will tell you it costs approximately 180.000 Euro counted from the birth of a child until the day the young adult leaves university and is ready to enter the working world and to stand on his own two feet. Given the fact that everything goes well! Sometimes you have to support your kid a little longer.




Europe has its statistics and many people do nowadays base important life decisions on these statistics. Meaning, there is planning and budgeting involved at what point to have children and how many. Most parents want to give the best to their children right from the start. It is a fact that to raise the necessary money for education of your child can be a challenge.

This again accounts for the fact that many women become mothers for the first time after 30 years of age in Europe, at a point when money is available. And then there are mother and child care programs, children's grants etc, etc. So we know it takes a lot to develop a child into a responsible adult in Europe.  




What does it take to develop a child in Africa? In a Township or in a remote rural region? The same?





Job Description Of A Teacher In  Mdantsane: We must know that we are here to develop a child physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually!


Body, mind, spirit and soul make a human being. To help someone develop spiritually and emotionally is probably the most challenging part of the educational process because here values are formed.




We are sharing with you today a look inside a preschool in Mdantsane in NU 1. Like many educational institutions in South Africa this creche has to make do with very little educational material.

If there is less material available to work with the children, teachers have to be more inventive, more creative and they have to improvise a lot more. There are voices in South Africa saying that the South African government is failing the people by not providing the support to the communities in terms of educational material and teachers, that was promised.




School Children in Mdantsane


Is enough invested into the future of South Africa - the youth?

We are asking this question, because although denied by many politicians South Africa is experiencing what is called by the media an educational crisis. 

If school books have not been delivered six months after the school year started and the curriculum could not be followed due to this negligence can it then not be called a crisis? At what level responsibility has to be taken for failure to deliver.




The Music Area


Asking the question again: what is needed in South Africa to develop a child? Is not more effort needed and a more serious attitude from the stakeholders involved in the process?







The most important thing at this point in time is to develop, to invest the maximum into the youth to allow this country to become what it deserves to be. An aggravating factor that we are experiencing is the fact that many young people have lost interest in education and drop out of school.




Handmade drums, material used old tins covered with animal skins!


It is a good thing to recycle!









And still you find so many positive teachers who do an excellent job and come to work every day with passion thinking of ways to teach children if there are no books, no tables, no chairs and no pens.









Future leaders





Some interesting delicious food items!















The classroom










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The Love Of Mdantsane

A whole lot of love




Noloyiso Mtoko has left us a comment on our article "This is also Mdantsane":

"I love this blog, it brought tears to my face. I grew up in Mdantsane,
even though my parents moved I still regard Mdantsane as my home!

Now I'm so far from home, currently in South Korea but I feel so close to home as I'm going through this blog!" 




This comment has in turn brought some tears to our eyes and we are seizing the moment to say: Thank you Noloyiso. This means a lot to us.




Coming Home




We can understand what the ones who have left Mdantsane and are living abroad now are missing. Mdantsane is one of the poorest townships in South Africa but it is a place whose streets and most homes (at least the ones that we have visited) are filled with love.

When you are far from home, after a while you come to the point, that you realize all the positive things, that the place you were born has given you when you were a child. Not without regret you realize the distance that is between you and your place of birth.

Our article today is for the ones who are far from their beloved Mdantsane.  It is for the ones who are a little home sick. We are sending some pictures of love from their township out into the world.




The eternal and never ending bond



The afternoon is a time spend on the street in front of the houses of your immediate environment.This is so because we are in Africa and people do not retract to their houses. They like to be outside.The afternoon is a time for mothers and their children. It is a time when mothers listen to the stories their children tell them about what they have experienced in the creche and in the school. 





A mind of her own




It is a time of bonding and exchanging mutual love.




Patience is the rule here and love again!




Sometimes it ain't easy because the little ones have a head of their own with definite ideas of their own. But never loose patience is the rule here.




Walking with you mother




It is a time to come home, but not necessarily to stay in the home. It is a time for the children to be free under the eyes of their mothers, who in turn have time for a chat with a friend. The afternoon is "social time" in Mdantsane and it is very easy to be social because everything is right in front of you. Just step out of your door. It is the classical traditional way of being social that costs nothing. It is the way of enjoying each others company and being with friends before there were coffee shops and malls. No, really we do like the mall a lot but our point is that everything you do there costs money and not everybody has it.








The Freedom Of The Streets




Kids walk the neighborhood together with their friends collecting the small adventures that they will remember later when they are adults. 




Who wants to be beautiful sometimes has to suffer




And some have walked it so long, that the shoes are giving trouble. It is the usual story! Who wants to be beautiful has to suffer! It is a story that starts young when you are a girl.




On a commission




Mdantsane is a place, that has a lot of acceptance for people who come to visit the township. As a foreigner you might see a face and think, this person has a grim look and is going to reject me. But the moment you open a conversation and you talk to that person you will find an open ear. What you initially thought was rejection, was only an expression of surprise to see you here.

Without exception everybody we have met, was willing to talk and to listen to us and we experienced great and heart felt hospitality.




A Look Of Surprise




A chat between friends while you walk slowly down the street, at your own pace, is the right thing to close a busy day off. And the old rule of conversation, that every good conversation should follow is still very alive here! 

One listens and the other one talks!




Time to talk and walk




It can take a while until everything is said what has to be said! But there is no problem with that because the one who listens understands this fact completely and knows his turn will come in a while! No books are needed to explain this. That you listen to understand and you do not listen to respond comes as a natural thing. It is the old African way of talking.




You talk I listen!




No hurry, no rush. It is Saturday afternoon!




We have all the time it takes




Your husband is at the shebeen, or at a friends house or may be he his watching a soccer match. So there is time!




But some thoughts are still left unsaid!



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My (Ooh!) Boy Lollipop

Every school in Mdantsane has a candy corner which is a by the learners much frequented place. This is our last post for the Inkwenkwezi High School in NU 6 (for now) and we want to express our gratitude to all the teachers and learners who have spend time with us and allowed us to show to our readers the inside of a South African High School in a township.






Oh boy, some hearts are gonna break!


There was no time to ask for her name, so we are only going to show her beautiful face. But some  hearts are gonna break very soon and they will continue breaking. over the next few years.





Candy For A Break





And there is more of it!






Enough for everyone





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Intluzo - The Art Of Weaving A Traditional Xhosa Beer Strainer

The article we are publishing today is a nice follow-up on our last article about Welile, the cane weaver. Welile is using cane to create his baskets and he makes use of a relatively easy method of weaving.

But there are African weaving techniques, that are much older - nobody really knows how old they are because they have been around for centuries. Nowadays their continued existence is in danger. 






The item I want to introduce you to today is called Intluzo. Intluzo is a handmade strainer, that is used to strain the traditional brewed Xhosa beer.





Chandelier Made From 5 Beerstrainers





Umqombothi is the name for the traditional home brew still loved by many
Xhosa men and women in the rural regions, especially in the moutaineous
beautiful areas of the Transkei. Fat livestock roams on green hills when
the rain is good.

Art and Craft always express society. We want to show you some pictures of the Transkei so that our foreign readers understand the type of environment in which this product developed over the years.







A Xhosa Village









Nguni Cattle





The Vastness  of the Transkei







Green hills and fertile soil










A Xhosa Homestead







A Bird's Eye View





Give Me Color





Built With Mud





Wooden Fence


   

But the Intluzo was also used for straining thin porridge for the children. It served the elders as well as the youngsters. Symbolically it was a very important item in a traditional Xhosa household. It was  given as a wedding gift to the newly married.




The strainers are made by sewing together many strands of carefully prepared twisted sedge stems. It is a complicated and time consuming technique and only a few crafterrs, mostly old men are left with this skill. It takes a great amount of patience to learn this skill and to pass it on to the younger generation. And at this point the string of passing on traditions is broken. 





Detail of the weaving technique





 In a rapidly evolving South African society, that tends towards urbanization, consumerism and easy acceptance of American and European ideologies and values, young people are not interested anymore in learning this craft. In the first place there is no interest in staying in the villages in the rural areas-understandably because there are very few job opportunities. 

But also to follow in their father's footsteps and become a farmer and learn how to make beer strainers does not make sense in 2012.




Intluzo is a traditional Xhosa product born out of the traditions and the culture of the Transkei. As such it has great heritage value.

Every society faces the need to evolve and to re-evaluate its traditions. Some traditions can not be kept and they will vanish by themselves because the members of society are not willing to support them anymore They are out of time.Others have great historical value and should be conserved.

If they can not find a place anymore in the society in the original role they fulfilled, then they should be kept and curated in the field of art and design as a reminder. The weaving of the traditional Xhosa beer strainers is one such tradition, that deserves to be remembered.




I would like to show you a product that has been made from Intluzos.  A chandelier made from five beerstrainerss. It is a product designed to keep this technique alive. It is a creation of Annegret Mostert who has also designed the set of traditional Xhosa wedding gifts. Keeping this technique alive by supporting old crafters financially through buying the strainers from them in the villages might be an incentive that younger people might still want to learn how to weave the beer strainers.










 




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The Story Of Welile The Cane Weaver

Welile Melane The Cane Weaver




Welile Melane has been living in Mdantsane for a very long time. Welile is a basket weaver and he works from a container in the Mdantsane Arts Center. He has not always been a cane weaver.








During the political unrest in the 1980's when the whole of South Africa was in turmoil Mdantsane was also put under a curfew to keep protesters under control. One day Welile came into a violent confrontation with the police, was beaten severely and lost his eye. Half blind in a time of great insecurity he faced a grim fate.

At a later stage when peace was restored in the township and the country's regime had changed Welile found help from the South African organization of the blind in East London. He got involved in a skills development program and was trained in the century old craft technique of basket weaving.







Basket weaving is like pottery one of the oldest trades and crafts techniques in the world and is practised in many countries. The role basket weavers and ceramic artists played in the community was an important one. People always needed containers and before the arrival of plastic and other modern materials baskets and ceramic pots were valued household goods.




The techniques differ depending on the region, culture, history and the material available. It is a skill that deserves great admiration. But some of the very old technique are known only by old people in the rural areas anymore and are dying out now.  It is a skill from the past.






Welile is weaving with cane. He has to buy the material from suppliers in East London. Cane is not available in Mdantsane. 



"Now, I had a skill but I had no money to start a business", says Welile.








Somebody told him about the Mdantsane Art Center. The Art Center of Mdantsane is a story of its own. It has its ups and down. It is riding a constant wave. At the moment it is in the upwards face and there is life.The premises are filled with artists because the center has received new funding from the government





Welile's Baskets




Welile was given a container from where he operates his business now. He called his business WEZA'S CANE WEAVING and works still alone. These are some of the beautiful baskets he makes. 




Working Material









WEZA'S CANE WEAVING








Welile was facing the same situation like many other participants, that have completed successfully skills development programs. To develop a skill takes time and dedication. You have to be hard working and patient.

But it is even more difficult to start a business. Once the skill is there, what next?

There are business start up programs in East London that assist artists like Welile.

"But then again financial input is not the only thing that matters", Welile reasons, "equally important are management skills. And these are not easy to transfer in a couple of days or in a week long workshop to an uneducated person".




But Welile tries! 




He has learned about costing and knows now how to get his prices right and not to sell his products to cheap.

"But if the price is right and fair to him people tend to buy less", he says








If you have enjoyed the story about Welile don't miss our 60 min road and documentary movie MDANTSANE - ANOTHER AFRICAN STORY  (click the link to watch the trailer). We have included an interview with Welile in the movie.








 A peak into Welile's workshop





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Exams In Progress At Inkwenkwezi High School In Mdantsane

The Mdantsane Way Magazine is like a story teller from the old Orient. Our stories go on and on. The stories we tell, continue over time. And when we have really finished telling a story, and if we have told it well, the reader has the feeling that he or she somehow knows the person or institution. But we always leave the door a little open, to be able to continue with a person's story at a later stage, due to the fact that a persons life does continue as well and interesting and surprising things might happen.


We are not publishing what is called breaking news - disastrous news to use another word. 



The Mdantsane Way is a new kind of online magazine: authentic, personal and interactive, with engaging long-form
storytelling. To us storytelling means we have to be narrative with a strong sense of place,
character or time. We have to leave some beautiful images behind of the things we have seen. 


Our words have to be carefully selected when repeating what we have heard to respect every body's life and to be not superficial. Our stories have to convey a message as well. The message is that the example of somebody else can trigger your own success simply because you see it is possible, somebody else has done it. Everybody can become the master of his own mind and live his own life. 

Sometimes help from the outside is needed to realize your dreams, but the help is always there. The important thing is to realize in your mind, that what you want can be done. Once this has been achieved helps comes because people start taking you serious! 







Empty halls and silence before




We have a considerable number of new readers from Russia. And we have new readers from Lebanon and Singapore.Thank you to our Russian Readers. Thank you to our readers from Lebanon and Singapore. To us this is amazing!




The Mdantsane Way is published digitally, so we can distribute globally across borders and cultures, instantaneously. This has always been our objective. But we are still amazed how well it works. We are in a relatively unknown place compared to the rest of the world and still people from other countries find us on the net.

Our mission is to leave something behind, that readers can come back to. Our images will not die. They will keep their beauty. Our words have been chosen in a way that they will not loose their meaning in a couple of years.

We can see from our statistics that our new and old readers go back now to the stories we have told a year of two ago.




So may be if we continue our work, we will become something like a point of reference that is like a cut through the South African society, that readers can come back to even in ten years.







We are also getting a lot of feedback from South African readers. 

Vuyolwethu Mbatyoti has an applied degree in communication management, is doing an Honors in Social Science (we have not yet met but we will next week) and has send us a letter commenting on the topic of education.

"Mdantsane is a big township and it is full of
uneducated and unemployed people especially the youth, an emphasis on the value
of education is not a bad idea. Sharing success stories on education can
encourage young people to value education and improve their lives for the
better. In this way the magazine is contributing toward the development of the
community."

That is exactly our opinion and the reason why we are running several stories on the Inkwenkwezi High School in NU 6.






The teachers were not the ones to be concerned about the exams




When we visited the Inkwenwkezi High School the other day exams were in progress. We have in South Africa what has been labelled an education crisis by the South African government and the Eastern Cape is the poorest performing province. Very low matric pass rates and a high percentage of learners that drop out of school, non interested teachers are characteristics of this situation.




The Inkwenkwezi High School is an example of a school making a difference.







Intense discussions after the exams



While the halls were empty and there was a deadly silence when we arrived, a couple of minutes later the school premises were humming with voices and sounds.








Concerned faces, worries....







and ways to de-stress had to be found!







The girls of South Africa are of a striking beauty but most of the real supermodels of this world are not discovered, no matter how great their beauty. But education can and will take a young person to where he or she wants to be.







Some had the feeling they had done very well







while others were just happy everything was over!
























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One Moment's Sweetness

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A Barbecue in Mdantsane Endaweni Style

The Mdantsanians like the good things in life. But they also like it simple and not complicated.

All Mdantsanians are first of all South Africans and there is nothing a South African likes as much as a good braai (barbecue, the Afrikaans word for grilling meat on a fire) in decent company with a couple of ice cold beers. 

If you give a South African the option to to choose between a braai and a gala evening at the Bolschoi theater or the Dresden Semper opera, he would choose his braai - not because he is not interested in culture and the arts but because a braai is the core essence of South African entertainment.  In simpler words : outdoors, fire, friends, drinks, music, meat!









With a fire going like this....







and an experienced grill master like him nothing can go wrong




Thandile was playing the braai master just for us on this day




Braaing at the Endaweni open air restaurant works like this. You got to the butchery right next door buy your meat and you prepare it yourself on one of the many fire places. Easy? Isn't it ?







The meat comes from the Mdantsane abattoir and the owners of Endaweni sell it at a very reasonable price.







"People are always surprised how cheap well sell the meat" says Thandile.

The meat was not only cheap but it had flavor.









The grilling process...








and even the tools are kept simple








which shows you that the good things in life do not necessarily need a lot of money but rather the right attitude.








And if you feel like having more meat you can just go back to the butchery!







There is more than one friendly lady willing to help you.









Somebody asked us the other day: How did this all start? How did you come to write about all the important small things in life?

The sum of all the small and so important things, and the way you do them make really up your life.

So it is important to discover how to enjoy life.








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E N D A W E N I - Music Lounge And Butchery - The It Place In Mdantsane

The Endaweni Music Lounge and Butchery is a place that overlooks town.

It is the In-Place in Mdantsane at the moment. If you want to go out and have fun this is the place you should be heading for.







It is one of the few private double story buildings in Mdantsane







From the balcony on the upper level where you can have your drinks you can overlook the town and observe the street life below.







The two friends, African brothers and business partners Nceba and Thandile had a brilliant business idea approximately one and a half year ago. And their idea has paid out already!




Close Friends and Business Partners Thandile(left) and Nceba Kwakweni (right)




Nceba Kwakweni said to us that he is shy and that this is the first interview ever he is doing. But between you and me, I can tell you, that we could not find the shyness in him that he was talking about. In fact we had a lot of fun with him and his friend Thandile!



"Most of the people from the township drive to town if they want to be entertained and go out. There was no place here in Mdantsane, where people could meet, socialize and be entertained", says Nceba Kwakweni.

"So we decided let us build something here, so that the people stay in the township and find their entertainment here, instead of driving 25 minutes to town to go to a club".




Nceba Kwakweni Owner of Endaweni


As it was said so it was done. Endaweni is today an establishement that entertains people who come as far as from Jo'burg. The word has spread that Endaweni is a place where you can really chill out and have fun in township style.







Thandile



"We have become what you could call an International Lounge", says Nceba, laughing. 





Building a successful business together





The business has become so successful that the two are building now a VIP lounge in the back.






Inside The Lounge




"The lounge has style and a certain class but we have not forgotten that we are in a township" says Thandile," we have a dress code but we are flexible with it. We allow shorts if they are stylish but we do not allow cut-off jeans and we do not like caps too much".




Lounging At Endaweni

 


"From eight to ten we are a lounge, from ten to twelve we have become a club and the rest of the night we are really a club", explains Nceba Kwakweni







DJ'ing equipment




We make music here, we get DJ's in to entertain our guests and this is a very great attraction" Thandile adds to the conversation, we get DJ's from Mdantsane. There is a lot of talent here"













We are getting the feeling. Endaweni is a place where you can chill out in a very friendly and warm atmosphere, watch people from the balcony without been watched.....







The street below is busy at all times







Well, sometimes not been seen does not work......







It a place with a great future and enormous potential. Thandile and Nceba  have created an African success story, a Mdantsane success story!  







Check in on The Mdantsane Way tomorrow when Nceba Kwakweni shares with us his personal view on doing business,building a VIP lounge and having success in Mdantsane.







You should not miss a close up on his open air restaurant in the back!








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Precision Cut

The picture was taken at the Indian Plaza in North End. The first inhabitants who came to live in Mdantsane were forcefully removed by the then Department of Bantu education under the Apartheid Regime from two areas in East London called the East Bank and North End and re-settled in Mdantsane.

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