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| On-going research has always
formed the backbone of this project. The overall aim of the current research
is to better understand the effect and effectiveness of beadwork craft as a
visual metaphoric mode of expression, and to analyse the ways in which the
project seeks to circumvent particular cultural taboos on the discussion of
sexuality and other matters of personal intimacy. The following describes an early publication in the Design Issues Journal at the MIT Press, USA. Vol.20, Issue 2 – Spring 2004.
The Siyazama Project: A Traditional Beadwork
and AIDS Intervention Program This article is first and foremost descriptive: it gives an account of
the origin and development of the Siyazama Project, both as a design
communication and AIDS intervention program among the Zulu women of
rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It also is analytic, since it
explains the effect and effectiveness of beadwork as a visual metaphoric
mode of expression. It demonstrates how the beadwork and craft of the
women in the Siyazama Project act as reliable and authoritative modes of
communication to circumvent the Zulu cultural taboo on the discussion of
matters of personal intimacy (hlonipha), and the women’s lack of English
and scribal writing, all of which threaten to render them powerless,
silent and invisible in the war against AIDS. The beadwork designs of
the rural women of KwaZulu-Natal successfully transcend accepted
traditional modes and norms, and challenge socio-cultural, health, and
economic issues that threaten their lives and the lives of their
families and communities. The Siyazama project thus has changed and is
changing the self and community image of those most affected by the AIDS
pandemic. It is only a matter of time before such transformation
impinges on their society as a whole, providing a significant example of
the role of design as an agent of social transformation. |
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