When more than 5000 prominent Christian leaders from some 200 countries gathered at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 17 October for Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization they were welcomed by the display of six three-metre long, brightly beaded ‘story tapestries' that were created by rural Zulu crafters to provide a glorious African perspective on the conference themes.
Africa!Ignite, a Durban-based rural development agency that specialises in visual story-telling, worked with the 26 rural crafters from across KwaZulu-Natal to create the tapestries. Each tapestry vividly portrays one of the conference's six themes through two complementary beaded pictures that depict carefully selected bible stories, one from the Old and one from the New Testament.
‘Cape Town 2010' is the third Lausanne World Congress. The first was in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974 and the second in Manila, Philippines in 1989. Seeing that Cape Town 2010 was the first congress on African soil, the organisers wanted to make sure that it reflected the character of the continent that hosted it. The tapestries therefore give an African interpretation of the gospels and showcase Zulu beadwork as an ancient African art form.
The creation of the tapestries started when Africa!Ignite, with assistance from Durban's Glenridge and Durban North Methodist churches, brought Zulu-speaking Christians from rural and township communities together so that they could capture their mind pictures of the chosen bible stories. Christian artist Ruth Smith synthesized these images into designs to which the Zulu crafters added their own interpretations, artistry, skill and sense of colour during many days of painstaking beadwork.
The twenty-six crafters come from as far afield as the Umkhanyakhude district on the Mozambique border, Richmond in the east, Izingolweni and Mzumbe in the south, Lamontville in South Durban and Mepho in the Ilembe district.
For more information contact Zasembo or Margaret at Africa!Ignite, 031 3035482.
