Fiyani John ‘Johanni’ Masondo

Born in 1965, Fiyani John Masondo, who signs as Johanni, has spent most of his life as a farm labourer, picking up skills that are never put to use, although they would make an impressive CV. Farm labourers, of course, don’t get to have CVs. They have a temporary existence, based on temporary jobs, with long spells of nothing in between.

Two of Fiyani’s employers were murdered – which meant the end of work. Other jobs were seasonal or affected by the market slump. He’s not a talkative person, so one has to work alongside him, digging in a field, to discover the wide range of knowledge he has acquired about farming. His experience has been diverse and practical. He’s learnt and observed – and lost another job.
In 1999, during another spell of unemployment, Fiyani signed on for temporary work with a poverty relief programme, clearing land for the plough. When that work came to an end, he joined a copper wire class, sitting with twelve-year-olds and learning from the beginning.

It wasn’t easy for a man with such a strong sense of manhood. He is independent, stubborn, slow, and methodical – and he faltered learning to bead (traditionally seen as a woman’s activity). He would come into his own with the use of brass beads on copper baskets for metal is perceived as a male element. Fiyani was comfortable with brass, a ‘male’ decoration – heavy and assertive, forged out of rock.

Necessity has made him come to terms with glass beads, and his skilled coloured beading has drawn admiration from the women. But that’s a necessity. His real love is metal – and his best work is metal with no beading at all.

Text adapted from correspondence between Creina Alcock and Julia Meintjes, 2011.

Fiyani John ‘Johanni’ Masondo

Born in 1965, Fiyani John Masondo, who signs as Johanni, has spent most of his life as a farm labourer, picking up skills that are never put to use, although they would make an impressive CV. Farm labourers, of course, don’t get to have CVs. They have a temporary existence, based on temporary jobs, with long spells of nothing in between.

Two of Fiyani’s employers were murdered – which meant the end of work. Other jobs were seasonal or affected by the market slump. He’s not a talkative person, so one has to work alongside him, digging in a field, to discover the wide range of knowledge he has acquired about farming. His experience has been diverse and practical. He’s learnt and observed – and lost another job.
In 1999, during another spell of unemployment, Fiyani signed on for temporary work with a poverty relief programme, clearing land for the plough. When that work came to an end, he joined a copper wire class, sitting with twelve-year-olds and learning from the beginning.

It wasn’t easy for a man with such a strong sense of manhood. He is independent, stubborn, slow, and methodical – and he faltered learning to bead (traditionally seen as a woman’s activity). He would come into his own with the use of brass beads on copper baskets for metal is perceived as a male element. Fiyani was comfortable with brass, a ‘male’ decoration – heavy and assertive, forged out of rock.

Necessity has made him come to terms with glass beads, and his skilled coloured beading has drawn admiration from the women. But that’s a necessity. His real love is metal – and his best work is metal with no beading at all.

Text adapted from correspondence between Creina Alcock and Julia Meintjes, 2011.

Lindeni Dladla

Mdukatshni used to be a farm where Black residents worked a six-month system for the right to live on the farm. In 1969 the government outlawed the system, and around 10 000 people were forcibly removed from the farms. Mdukatshani had been lying empty for six years when the Mdukatshani project bought the land, unaware of its history. Most of the farm has now been ceded back to the Mtembu and Mchunu tribal authorities.

Lindeni Dladla was five years old when her family was forced to flee from the Koornspruit farm (now called Mdukatshani) to Mashunka, in the Thukela Valley. The removals had started with police helicopter patrols picking up men found on the farms and flying them to a Special Court in Weenen. Police trucks followed, arriving at night to load up women and children before setting their homes alight.

Lindeni Dladla’s father had made a living on the farm, but when they settled at Mashunka with other refugees, the land was too overcrowded for agriculture. It was a tribal area in a Reserve, and there were no schools in the vicinity. Lindeni Dladla was eleven years old when the Mdukatshani project arrived in the district bringing change and opportunity. At sixteen, she got a job at Mdukatshani clearing bush, building dams and learning beadwork.

Soon after, she met Vukaphi Ngubane, and after a three-year-long courtship and the payment of lobola, Lindeni Dladla moved to his home at Nkaseni about seven kilometres from Mdukatshani, which wasn’t far but was a different tribal ward so her working life came to an end. She settled into the life of a young married woman with the duties of the home. She had three small children when her in-laws were violently murdered in an attack that left her in shock, impacting her health for years. It was a relief when Vukaphi Ngubane moved the family to Mashunka, which was home ground, close to Lindeni Dladla’s friends, and next door to Mdukatshani.

It took some time before they could rebuild their home, but eventually, Lindeni Dladla re-joined the craft group and returned to her forgotten skill with beads. Like all the young mothers in the group, household work came first, so craftwork was a part-time activity. There was firewood to be chopped and carried from the hill and water to be fetched from the river, along with the demands of an ever-growing family. But soon, Lindeni Dladla was on her way to becoming one of the stars in the group, eventually producing woven copper bowls for exhibitions in South Africa and overseas, despite multiple personal setbacks. Today, she is once again a full-time crafter, doing needlework when there are orders for jewellery but preferring to work with fine copper wire making eggs, bangles and bowls.

Text adapted from correspondence between the Mdukatshani Trust and JMFA, 2021.