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The eMzantsi recycled costume, puppet and float-building crew are referred to as the mapiko crew. For a long time, we were seeking an African equivalent for the Trinidadian term ‘Mas-making’ – Mas refers to Masquerade, but we wanted a word that would resonate in the South African context. Following a visit to the Iziko exhibition ‘Ghoema and Glitter’ we discovered the Makonde word ‘mapiko’ (from Mozambique) which simultaneously means ‘mask-making’, ‘shape-shifting’ and ‘wonder’ – far more suggestive of the wide range of skills they embody and magic they create than mere ‘costume-makers’! ‘Amapiko’ also means ‘wings’ in isiXhosa – eMzantsi gives mapiko wings!
Thanks to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund since 2009, and the UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity in 2012, the eMzantsi community-building project has been able to expand training and capacity-building opportunities for our local Mapiko artists and Sinakho crafters.
If you would like more information about the Mapiko project, call 021 785 1515 or email info@emzantsi.org.za.
Mapiko Training 2012
In January, 12 of eMzantsi’s top Mapiko artists started working on float building for the Cape Town Carnival, with numbers increasing to 20 by March. The Harlequin Foundation was happy to have facilitated this job opportunity and subsidised this work experience by providing transport via the eMzantsi minibus.
However, this left us with few hands to prepare materials for our schools workshop programme. Gauteng Carnival expert artists Lebohang Lit’sili and Joseph Nkone, who were here working on the CTC, were seconded to mentor a mostly female second string Mapiko crew to design and develop props for the schools programme and AfrikaBurn over 2 weeks.
Lebo and Joe’s Mapiko training March 2012
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| Making ‘junk funk’ instruments from recycled materials | ||
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| Learning new skills with tools | ||
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| Making everything from hand and hip shakers to tambourines and drums | ||
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| Mapiko training group Yandiswa, Nonzuzo, Sipheleke, Nonthembeko, Fikelwa, Trigga and products for use on our schools programme, with Gauteng trainers Lebo Lets’hili (left) and Joseph Nkone (right) | |
UNESCO apprentice training
In 2012, UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity approved a grant of US$81000 to the eMzantsi Mapiko training project for “Encouraging creative entrepreneurship in South Africa through recycled arts”. The funding, stemming from the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, allowed the expansion of the project initiated under our 3 year NLDTF funding cycle 2009-11.
The year-long UNESCO module programme, which started in March 2012, nurtured capacity in creating small scale craft to large scale carnival art, focusing on building skills of 20 adults with learning disabilities and single mothers from Ocean View and Masiphumelele.
The UNESCO apprentices display some of the recycled craft they learned to produce in 2012
The UNESCO apprentices learned a range of skills including mask-making, wire work, and papier mache, to create products from small recycled craft – mirrors, picture frames, bags and toys – to largescale carnival backpacks and small floats.
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| Mapiko manager and training coordinator Yandiswa Mazwana oversees construction of backpacks | |
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| alongside eMzantsi Carnival creative director Justin Stuart and senior trainer Sidney Ryan. | |
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| Mapiko UNESCO apprentices Mohamed, Elaine, Melanie, Lorraine and Denver in the backpacks | ||
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| they created themselves parading at Youth Day celebrations in Masiphumelele in June 2012 | ||
In November, the UNESCO apprentices were given a commission by EnviroServ in partnership with SuperSport to make Kriki For Shore beach cricket sets from recycled materials for Xmas gifts. Not only did the team learn a great deal about hard work and quality control, they were featured on eNews!
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| Melanie and Marius demonstrate the Kriki For Shore beach cricket set, and being filmed by eNews crew | |
In December, the team also sold craft products at the City of Cape Town’s Waste to Art Market in the Company Gardens over 2 weeks.
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| Recycled Xmas angels, toy windmills and Lorraine Hendriks at Waste to Art market stall in December | ||
Mapiko construction
With limited funding in 2012, Mapiko were restricted to making one giant puppet, as an exercise in construction of large-scale carnival art for the UNESCO trainees. Creative director Justin Stuart and senior Mapiko makers Sidney Ryan, Marius Waries, Samson Zulu and Kenny Sibanda demonstrated skills they have honed since 2009 in the creation of Harlequin. Images of the traditional European patchwork pantomime hero Harlequin with his everlasting high spirits were combined with tales of African trickster Hare to create our symbolically flexible funster who adapts his outlook according to changing circumstances.
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| The inner workings of the Harlequin puppet, and detail of his papier mache hand | |
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| Samson and Sidney putting Harlequin together outside Mapiko’s Fish Eagle workshop | |
To create Harlequin’s hands, the UNESCO apprentices were taught the technique of papier mache by Lisa von Brandis and Emmanuel Kamungoma, and they decorated the puppet with diamond-pattern dressmaking and glitter detail.
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| Harlequin at the eMzantsi Carnival Chillout Dec 2012 | |