Life in a Zulu Village: Craft and the Art of Modernity in South Africa

This article examines contemporary South African baskets as objects that refer to histories and memories. I argue that the manner of their display around urban areas in South Africa visually demarcates aspects of the cities as African. But I argue further that this African aura is concocted: these objects belong within a particular space of production denoted (and fenced off) as “authentically” African, because it is not industrialized, and therefore apparently not “modern.” Differentiations between rural and urban, tradition and modernity are argued to inform both the development and promotion of indigenous crafts. I thus review “authenticity” in a discussion of the ways the basket-makers use traditional and imported materials, motifs and techniques as vectors of African identity. Further I argue that in their most sophisticated manifestations, they demand the recognition of the craftsperson as individual artist.