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Crafts that empower, uplift and inspire.
Article by Juliet Leeb-du Toit
The Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft workshops and the development of a distinctive Rorke’s Drift ‘style’ in pottery, silk-screened fabric and carpet weaving
In 1952, just four years after the establishing of the Nationalist dominated regime in South Africa (1948), the Swedish self-taught artist and teacher Bertha Hansson travelled to South Africa where she met Bishop Helge Fosseus, then a Missionary of the Swedish Mission (later to become Bishop of the South Eastern Region of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Africa). Together they elaborated on the idea of craft education in Zululand. Their primary aim was to empower women and to strengthen material culture traditions in the area and to counter the poverty of the rural inhabitants from the rural Mapumulo-Nqutu diocese.
In 1959 the project began to take shape. The initial idea was to start a craft school that would later finance a Fine Art school. In 1961, with the support of the Swedish Committee for the Advancement of African Arts and Crafts in response to the appeal of Bishop Helge Fosseus, founders Peder and Ulla Gowenius were recruited to go to South Africa to set up the Zululand.
Arriving at Shiyane (Rorke’s Drift) in 1961, Peder and Ulla Gowenius were professionally trained artist-teachers trained at the prestigious Konstfack Skolan in Stockholm. At first, the Gowenius’s worked at the Ceza Mission Hospital at Mapumulo, where women were to be trained as weavers; the initial idea was to offer patients some occupational therapy during their convalescence. Some two years later in 1963, however, with the intention of expanding, the Gowenius’s relocated to its present site at Oskarsberg -as the former Swedish mission station at Rorke’s Drift was then called (now known also by its Zulu name of Shiyane).
At Rorke’s Drift/Shiyane, the Art training centre and Craft workshops were founded with Peder Gowenius as project director, and his wife Ulla Johannson as weaver and teacher. Ironically the location is close to the nearby Anglo-Zulu battlefields of Isandlwana and Shiyane (Rorke’s Drift).
Peder Gowenius stated that, ‘The aims of the centre are to nurture the unique artistic heritage of Africa; to extend this heritage, with new influences, so that it can take its proper place in an evolving society; to ensure that it keeps pace with social change and that its craft products will find increasingly profitable outlets; and to assist in raising the standard of living by extending its teaching influence through its students.’
While the intended encouragement of what was termed ‘traditional African expression in the visual arts’ was mooted, the skills taught in 1962 -weaving, sewing, fabric-printing (also a domestic science course) did not draw directly on indigenous craft practices, but loosely drew on some innate skills (weaving, design and later pottery as well). The studio practices were introduced with a view to providing job opportunities for rural people, and the marketing of these items to a predominantly international and local ‘white’ audience. From the outset in the Workshops, the emphasis was placed on the formal values in design – of geometric patterns and figurative images based in two-dimensional design that was to profoundly affect all aspects of the productivity at Rorke’s Drift.
Weaving Workshops
Something of the geometric nature of the Weavers’ motifs can be attributed to the practical procedures of their medium. The weavers still continue to originate the linear elements of their designs on squared or graph paper- a practical device that allowed small designs to be accurately scaled-up for the looms; however the cellular structure of the paper designs also encouraged the chevrons and stepped diagonals favoured in local Zulu and Sotho beadwork, pottery and basketry motifs, for example.
In just over a decade, by 1974 over 200 people were studying or employed at Rorke’s Drift. There were excellent public responses to Rorke’s Drift exhibitions from the mid- to late sixties. Rorke’s Drift tapestries and weaving were particularly well received in shows, and from the first weaving exhibitions there were very favourable economic rewards for the Workshop.
Fabric Workshop
In the Fabric Workshop, the printers use a similar device to create the separation of figure and ground for their printed motifs. Paper cut-outs are placed over the silkscreen to create a diapositive mask for later colour screening; additional painted lines are produced with screen-resist to generate smaller infills of dots and dashes within the larger masked areas.
Exhibitions – national and international exposure
April 1965 marks the first exhibition of Rorke’s Drift weavings in South Africa – a show at Syfret’s House in Durban- and three years later saw the official sanction of the Centre’s weaving at the SANG in Cape Town; some of these tapestries went on to be exhibited that same year at the Venice Biennale. In 1968, an exhibition in Sweden at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm sold out within a few hours.
In the 1970s several exhibitions locally and abroad established their stylistic distinctiveness, quality and uniqueness. Outlets such as Helen de Leeuw’s Craftsman’s Market in Johannesburg strongly supported their production, in which Marimekko (Finnish textiles) were placed adjacent to those from Rorke’s Drift. The fabric was used in contemporary dress in South Africa, the woven geometric design carpets were widely purchased and Rorke’s Drift tapestries were acclaimed and exhibited in Sweden, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Fine Arts School – and its impact
The Gowenius’s strong Workshop heritage –in both studio management and creative direction- was passed on to succeeding Swedish managers and workshop advisors. Ola Granath (a Swedish printmaker) and his wife Lillemor arrived in 1966 to assist with the expansion of the ACC’s operations in a new Fine Art School which was realised in 1967. It was here that Namibian John Muafangejo, and locals Azariah Mbatha, Paul Sibisi, and artists such as Dan Rakgoathe (formerly a student at iNdaleni) established a linocut tradition that in turn influenced weavers, potters and textile designer- and vice versa. In the Fine Arts school á two dimensional black and white intaglio printing tradition took root, becoming widely influential throughout South Africa.
Of all the disciplines taught at the Fine Art School, Printmaking (and formal aspects of intaglio design in particular) probably contributed most to the development of a consistent stylistic approach in all the Workshops. Gordon Mbatha’s initial training as a weaver and then his experiences in the various courses in printmaking undertaken at the Fine Art School -Joel Sibisi shared this experience as well- can be seen as seminal to the development of the pottery-studio’s characteristic decorative style.
Both Mbatha and Sibisi vividly recall their training in linocuts and etching at the School, and connect their approach to incised decoration directly to these formative experiences (pers comm: 1998). They both recalled that at first, figurative images and geometric motifs were painted in coloured slips onto the pottery surface, but after the period 1970-72 when Mbatha and Sibisi learned about printmaking in workshops at the Fine Art School they began to incise their painted motifs as well. Hence, the men’s slip-and-sgraffito motifs can be linked directly to the reductive graphic lines of intaglio processes (such as linocuts) in which linear motifs were formed by cutting away a coloured ground.
Pottery Workshop
Pottery was initiated at RD by Kerstin Ollson (in experimental workshops), followed by the Dane Peter Tyberg (c1968) with local master potters such as i.a. Gordon Mbatha (joined in 1968 but had started as a weaver earlier), together with Joel Sibisi and Ephraim Ziqubu, who were trained for professional careers in creating well-made thrown items.
Women were recruited in the pottery workshop to make hand-built coiled ware, drawing on their local traditions (eg Dinah Molefe who was an accomplished beer-potter from the adjoining Nqutu district- was first recruited as a handbuilder to coil pots). In all, the Pottery Workshop has employed some nineteen potters in over forty years of existence. As potters drew both from both local Zulu traditions and Sotho ones, this conflation resulted in the retention of certain features, such as the use of Sotho derived slips (to be carved into).
Tybjerg had established a consistent supply of local clay from a farm in New Hanover, over which a thin slips or oxides, often selectively applied, was incised with sgraffito emergence of the designs. Often these were pre-conceptual devolving into zoo- and anthropomorphic images, with some imagery linked to traditional orality or Biblically derived motifs. The clay body changed when to New Hanover based Sappi authorities discounted permission to use the local lay on their property. As a result clay in recent years is rather bland. New attempts are being made to get a clay body similar to that of their earlier clay.
In 1971 South African potter Marietjie van der Merwe contributed significantly and pragmatically to the development to Rorke’s Drift ceramics. Her extensive practical knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of South African ceramic raw materials had grown out of her own experiences in setting up a studio of her own – in Grahamstown, and then later in Cape Town.
A Rorke’s Drift ‘style’
In all three disciplines –pottery, weaving and fabric printing- significant exposure to the principles and practices of Swedish modernist graphic design – through the Workshop’s managers and teachers, emerged. The striking linear qualities of most of Rorke’s Drift motifs –including ceramics- can also be attributed to the immensely powerful influence of the graphic media at the heart of the studio practices of both the Workshops and the Fine Art School.
Gender
Ellertson noted (in 1974) that 85% of the workers at Rorke’s Drift at the time were women, because as he put it, ‘women traditionally did the weaving and pottery in Zulu society.’
Celebrating Rorke’s Drift – (60 years old) in 2021
In 2021, a mere handful of artists are active in the workshops. Problems in the limited output at present have been ascribed to a lack of newcomers and trainees; difficulties in sourcing wool, clay and the cost of dyes, and mostly a lack of commissions and local interest.
It is hoped that with the ongoing involvement with Woza Moya initiated by Paula Thomson, that Rorke’s Drift will again be foregrounded as a significant design and creativity centre that is central to local and South African design and capabilities.
As the state urges South Africans to support local production, design and initiative, it is important that we as consumers need to alerted once more to the unique creative idioms originating from Rorke’s Drift.
In 2022 a substantial retrospective exhibition accompanied by a major publication (J C Leeb-du Toit and Ian Calder) will be realised.
Chronology of Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre: some highlights
This is the first project in South Africa to receive official Swedish support.
To nurture the unique artistic heritage of Africa. To extend, with new influences, this heritage so that it will find its rightful place in a changing society. To ensure that it grows with changes in society and that its products will find increasingly profitable outlets. To assist in raising the standard of living by extending its teaching influence,especially in the workshops, where employment is created for local people..’ (H. van der Merwe, 1973)
1962
Peder, an art teacher and Ulla, a textile artist begin their work at the Ceza Hospital near Umpumulo under the sponsorship of the ELCSA.SER [Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Africa, South Eastern Region]. Patients in the TB-ward and maternity ward are taught sewing, stripweaving and spinning. Peder tries out different art forms with male patients.
Amongst the Gowenius’ first pupils are Azaria Mbatha and Allina Ndebele.
‘How do we make oppressed people aware of their situation, of their own
strength, creating an interest in their own future and a commitment to concepts of self-reliance, freedom and independence?’
[Peder Gowenius (1977) in This is our life. Denmark: National Museum of Denmark.
1962-63
The project moves from Ceza hospital to Umpumulo and an Art and Craft Advisors course is started. In 1963 the project moves once again to Rorke´s Drift also the home of the Oscarsberg mission station established by CSM missionaries in (then) Zululand. Rorke’s Drift (in isiZulu: Shiyane) was also the historical site of the battle between British colonial forces and Zulu warriors following the battle of Isandlwana in 1879—the historical turning point that finally brought the Zulu kingdom into British colonial control.
The Art and Craft Advisors course is extended and the Weaving Workshop is establihed to finance the school. Qualified Art and Craft advisors are employed by the church, or in local hospitals to help patients by providing occupational therapy during their recuperation.
1962-70
During this period, there are many successful international exhibitions of Rorke’s Drift:
Konstfack University College, Stockholm, Sweden 1962, 1963 and 1964
Röhsska Design Museum Gothenburg, Sweden 1965
Museum of Modern art in Stockholm Sweden, 1966
Malmö Museum, Malmö, Sweden 1966
Lousiana Art Museum Denmark 1967
Art Biennale in Venice, Italy. 1968
Contemporary African Art London, Great Britain 1969
Touring exhibition in Canada 1969-70
National Museum Stockholm, Sweden 1970
1964
Staff of the Art and Craft Centre are joined by Swedes: Eva Svensson, a sewing teacher Kerstin Olsson and Marianne Hessle who teaches weaving with Ulla Gowenius.
1964-68
Allina Ndebele studies weaving at Stenebyskolan in Sweden and Azaria Mbatha studies at the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm and then they return to teach at Rorke’s Drift. Art and Craft Advisors graduates Nellie Ndlala, Serafina Ndlovu and Tobile Xakasa also studies at Stenebyskolan on Swedish scholarships
1965-70
Local exhibitions and shows:
– Rorke’s Drift works are exhibited in South Africa for the first time in Durban in 1965 at Art South Africa Today and Alliance Francaise.
– The South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 1967. Opened by Professor H. van der Merwe, a prominent mediator between ANC leaders-in-exile and the South African Nationalist government, the show is described by critic Neville Dubow as ‘…one of the most significant exhibitions … for some time’
– Durban Art Gallery in purchasing Rorke’s Drift works makes South African history in becoming the first museum (with Director: Jill Addleson) to actively acquire the work of black artists during the Struggle Era. Jill Addleson purchased eleven pieces of Rorke’s Drift pottery from their exhibition; the accession in 1970 includes pottery by Dinah Molefe, Bhekisani Manyoni, Ephraim Ziqubu and Gordon Mbatha, as well as a print by the ceramist, Joel Sibisi. Note that Durban Art Gallery’s first Rorke’s Drift work was in fact acquired in 1968; this was Regina Buthelezi’s tapestry, Once there came a terrible beast.
– Art South Africa Today Durban 1965
– Alliance Francaise Durban 1965
– Gallery 101 Johannesburg 1966
– NSA Gallery Durban 1967
– Art South Africa Today Durban 1967
– Durban Art Gallery 1968
– Tatham Art Gallery Pietermaritzburg 1968
– Durban Art Gallery 1970
– The Art Museum, Pretoria
– The Art Hall Port Elizabeth
1966
A major tapestry is commissioned for the Royal Society in London, Great Britain. It takes a year to complete the tapestry, In the Begining or The Four Elements, designed by Lidness Mahlaba and Victoria Mncube. The commission makes the Centre economically viable and gives it international and national recognition. Plans are made for a Fine Art School and additional workshops.
1967
Afro Art opens in Stockholm, with a permanent display of Rorke’s Drift works.
1967
Azaria Mbatha experiments with textile printing. He later teaches silkscreening at Rorke’s Drift Fine Art School and in the Textile Printing workshop; finally moving to Sweden in 1970.
1968
Lillemor and Ola Granath replace Ulla and Peder Gowenius. Lillemor teaches weaving, crocheting and knitting; Ola teaches art and directs the Centre and the Fine Art School. Ola introduces etching as a printmaking process to the Fine Art School.
Peder and Ulla Gowenius move to Lesotho, where they establish Thabana li Mele community arts development project—and later a similar centre at Entswe la Odi, in Botswana.
With the knowledge and insight brought to each centre by the Gowenius’, the
establishment of these sites—together with Rorke’s Drift—were extremely significant in the history of Southern African arts and crafts development.
1968
Rorke’s Drift Fine Art School opens—at a time when apartheid institutions deny formal art training to black South Africans. There are many distinguished graduates over the years, including, Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Dan Rakgoathe, Bongiwe Dlhomo (one of the Schools’ few women artists), Musiweyixhwala Tabete, Cyprian Shilakoe, Caiphas Nxumalo, Vuminkosi Zulu, Eric Mbatha and Tony Nkotsi.
1968
The Pottery Workshop starts, supervised by Peter Tybjerg from Denmark. There are technical problems with local clays, kilns and firings.
Gordon Mbatha (who had begun with the Weaving Workshop) starts training on the potter’s wheel (and becomes Workshop supervisor), he is joined by Ephraim Ziqubu and Joel Sibisi who also learn throwing. Already expert ceramists from the neighbouring Nqutu region, Dinah Molefe and other women of her family join the Workshop as studio handbuilders—using traditional Zulu and Sotho coiling methods that are indigenous to the region.
The gendered division of studio work—women coiling, men throwing—is maintained to the present.
1968
The Texile Printing Workshop is established. Textile printing had earlier been used in the Arts and Crafts Advisors course in the sewing class using block and lino cut prints. With the Workshop silk-screen printing is introduced.
1968
The Art and Craft Centre Showroom (an exhibition hall) and office is completed—and was in use until storm damages in 2006.
1969
Anne and Ole Nielsen arrive from Denmark to follow on from Peter Tybjerg in the Pottery Workshop. Tybjerg goes to Swaziland to advise on local clays for the Ministry of Industrial Development.
1970
Malin, an artist and Otto Lundbohm, an art teacher, take over from Lillemor and Ola Granath. The Lundbohms return to Sweden in 1975.
During this time of rapid development and expansion, the Art and Craft Centre’s teaching staff include seven African, and five Nordic teachers. In addition there are 150 spinners, dyers and weavers, 10 potters and 30 Fine Art students.
1971-92
Prominent South African ceramist, Marietjie van der Merwe (d 1992), is appointed studio consultant to the Pottery Workshop. She resolves the studio’s technical problems and establishes studio processes in use to the present.
1971
Uno and Lillemor Johannson arrive to help the Lundbohms in their work at the Centre. Uno assists with administration, and Lillemor with teaching in weaving and dressmaking. They stay until 1976.
1973
American missionaries Reverend Carroll and Gabrielle Ellertson also come to help the Lundbohms. Gabrielle later undertakes studies in Fine Art at the University of South Africa, and teaches in the Fine Art School at Rorke’s Drift. The Ellertsons eventually directed the Centre after the Lundbohms return to Sweden in 1975. They leave Rorke’s Drift in 1979.
1974
Eric Mbatha (no relation to Azaria) begins to teach printmaking at the Fine Art School: ‘the first black appointee to a formal printmaking post in South Africa.’
1975
Jules and Ada van der Vijver, both Dutch graphic artists resident in Cape Town, South Africa, assume teaching duties at Rorke’s Drift. During his term of office, Jules invites many prominent South African artists (such as Walter Battiss, Cecil Skotnes, Bill Ainslie, and David Goldblatt) to lecture at the Centre and arranges visits and exchanges to the studios of prominent local artists. The van der Vijvers leave Rorke’s Drift in 1978.
1975
Jessie Dlamini is appointed supervisor of the Weaving Workshop and Maggie Dlomo supervisor of the Textile Printing Workshop.
1975
American critic Clement Greenberg judges the Art South Africa Today exhibition—officially sponsored by the apartheid Nationalist government to mark the twenty fifth Republic Festival—in which Rorke’s Drift works are separated (with many other craft and ‘naive’ works) from ‘progressive’ mainstream art in a specially devised marginal category.
1979
South Africans Keith and Annemarie van Winkel are appointed to direct the Centre. Keith runs the Fine Art School, and Annemarie works in the Weaving Workshop. The van Winkels leave at the beginning of 1981.
1979
Philda Majozi and Eamma Dammanne are appointed supervisors of the Weaving Workshop.
1981
Jay Johnson from the USA is appointed Principal of the Centre.
1981
Malin Lundbohm (Sellman) returns to Rorke’s Drift to teach and work. At several times during the period 1986 to 1991, Malin brings her considerable experience of arts and crafts development to assist in the ANC’s Dakawa Refugee Camp in Tanzania. With the unbanning of the ANC later in the early 90s, Malin becomes the first Director of the Dakawa Art and Craft Centre in Grahamstown, South Africa. In this work, she is assisted by Princess Ngcobo who is recruited from Rorke’s Drift. Hence the legacy of Rorke’s Drift is transported into new contexts.
1982
The Fine Art School closes, but the Pottery, Weaving, and Fabric Printing Workshops remain in production to the present.
1984
Rorke’s Drift largest commission: twenty Rorke’s Drift tapestries are installed at the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly building in Ulundi. Works are designed and woven by staff (including):
– Designer Phinias Mkhize, Weaver Victoria Buthelezi, Mary Shabalala
– Designer Lindumusa Mabaso, Weaver Rosta Ndawo, Esther Nxumalo
– Designer Eamma Mpanza, Weaver Victoria Buthelezi
– Designer Gordon Mbatha, Weaver Esther Nxumalo
– Designer Elliza Xaba, Weavers Elliza Xaba, Beatrina Zwane, Victoria Buthelezi
– Designer Philda Majozi, Weaver Esther Nxumalo
– Designers Mary Shabalala, Weavers Mary Shabalala, Rosta Ndawa, G Zigubu
– Designer Miriam Ndebele, Weaver Eliza Xaba Rosta Ndawe
– Designer Emily Mkhize ,Weaver Beatrice Zwane
– Designer Cathrine Ziqubu, Weaver Eamma Mpanza, Estah Nxumalo
– Designer Joel Sibisi, Weavers Philda Majozi, R Xaba, R Mbatha
– Designer Gordon Mbatha, Weaver Mary Shabalala
– Designer Joel Sibisi, Weaver Elliza Xaba
– Designer Rosta Ndawo, Weaver Beatrine Zwene
1985-89
Göran Skoglund from Sweden is appointed manager the of the Centre and Ulla Skoglund, a textile teacher, works in the workshops.
1985
The last major international exhibition of Rorke’s Drift—Afrikansk Konst, in Gothenburg, Sweden—featuring tapestries, fabrics and ceramics from the Centre together with the work of fibre weavers from Hlabisa, KwaZulu.
1992
The African Lutheran Church assumes control of the Centre from the Swedish ELC Mission. Reverend Mthembeni Ruben Zulu is appointed Director of the Centre.
1994
The first free democratic elections in South Africa.
2000
A ceramics development project at Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre is sponsored by the South African Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in collaboration with Ian Calder of the Centre for Visual Art, University of Natal: Pietermaritzburg.
2007
Senior staff of the Centre at the present date include:
• Reverend Mthembeni Ruben Zulu, Dire (since retired)
• Sibeko Elizabeth (Princess) Tyler, Book-keeper
• Celumusa Nxumalo, Supervisor of the Showroom
• Mirriet Mtshali, Supervisor of the Fabric.Printing Workshop
• Joel Sibisi, Supervisor of the Pottery Workshop (recently deceased)
• Philda Majozi and Eamma Damane, joint Supervisors of the Weaving Workshop.
Rev C Ellertson, Rorke’s Drift and the Nqutu District, unpublished paper marked 4 July 1974 (RD archival files). Figures comparing domestic and international sales are interesting. The Acting Principal’s report of May 1975 minuted a steady rise in domestic sales as follows
Year Domestic Sales % International Sales %
1966 24 76
1968 44 56
1970 73 27
1972 82 18
1973 89 11
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