Notes

The Mpondo people live in what became known as Pondoland, an approximately 10km wide strip of the Eastern Cape to the southern KwaZulu Natal coast, between Port St Johns in the south west and Port Edward in the north east. Although Xhosa is now their language the Mpondo, arrived in the area, from the north, during the 16^th century. Unlike the other Xhosa speaking clans in the region, who use ceramic vessels, the Mpondo use baskets to hold and serve beer. This tradition may have traveled with them from the north where one of their northern Nguni neighbours, the Zulu, also used baskets for the storage and transport of liquids.

Weaving of baskets is generally done by women across the African continent so the fact that these baskets are traditionally only woven by men makes them all the more unusual. The baskets are woven from a tough reed or grass-like creeper called gnoti which gives them their stability despite their open form.

- Michael Heuermann

^1. Patrick, A. McAllister (2005) Xhosa Beer Drinking Rituals: Power, Practice and perfromance in the South African Rural Periphery. Carolina Academic Press: Durham, North Carolina.

^2. Anitra Nettleton (2010) 'Life in a Zulu Village: Craft and the Art of Modernity in South Africa', The Journal of Modern Craft, 3(1): pages 55-78.

Literature

See similar, Fig 6. Pondomise Izitya, Standard Bank Collection of African Art, Wits Art Museum, page 60.

See similar, Fig 7. Monica Hunter, Man Making a Sewn Beer Basket in Pondo, Pondoland East, 1932. Standard Bank Collection of African Art, Wits Art Museum, page 61.