The Hindu : New Delhi News : Attempt to link heritage of South Africa and India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 30, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Attempt to link heritage of South Africa and India

Staff Reporter

Workshop to create exportable products under the name of Afrikhadi

NEW DELHI: These are links to a shared heritage that straddles two continents. Keeping alive the threads of an inheritance of one man in South Africa and India, it was an opportunity for two countries separated by the divide of language to spin the Mahatma's cloth in the 21st Century with its intrinsic values still intact.

Giving craftspeople from both countries a chance to learn from each other, Dastkari Haat Samiti organised a crafts design workshop that finally culminated in an exhibition at Dilli Haat here on Thursday.

The idea of the workshop was to create exportable products under the name of Afrikhadi with shared skills and new designs under designers from both countries.

"The idea is to link a wonderful heritage of South Africa and India. While the project of Afrikhadi was started in 2003, in the first meeting nothing really comes out.

It is thought that it is 55 years after the struggle is over and we don't need this ideology, but upliftment of the poor goes on for a long time especially in the globalised world.

We feel that India and South Africa have the kind of skills that no other country has and can bring out an exclusive product in keeping with contemporary times,'' said Dastkari Haat Samiti president Jaya Jaitly at a press conference in the Capital.

This is not the first time that such a workshop was organised. The Dastkari Haat Samiti had conducted similar projects with Vietnam and Pakistan. As part of the process to bring people from different countries together, the design workshop is an attempt to blur boundaries through creativity.

"I got a telephone call from a craftsperson from Pakistan only yesterday who had taken part in the crafts workshop. He said that the skills he had learnt in India had proven to be very useful and that he had got big orders on the products. He also kept in touch with people he had met here and wanted to know if we could help with buyers. Like that the boundaries between India and Pakistan disappeared. We hope that we can help our South African craftspeople with any raw material or colour in the same way,'' she said.

A step forward to bring indigenous crafts alive by linking craftsmen together, the workshop has gone a long way in helping artisans in both countries to acquire a skill that they both need to survive -- marketing.

"These workshops should continue with designers from both countries. We learnt how to create products that would do well in their market and managed to create a complete new product by mixing both our talents,'' said an Indian craftsmen.

Creating a whole new range of bedroom accessories from silk khadi lamps block-printed to bed covers with beautiful golden lizards -- very popular in South Africa -- these products fit into any luxury apartment in any big city in the world.

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