Arts and Crafts of the Lowveld
The cultural heritage of the Mpumalanga province is both varied and exciting. The Ndebele beadwork and house painting in the north-west, the arts and crafts of the Lowveld and the different traditional villages all over the province offer a unique insight into the history of the people.
Barberton features many reminders of the early gold-rush era. Museums include Belhaven, Fernlea House and Stopforth House. The only known verdite deposits in the world are found in the rocks of the Barberton district. Verdite has been used by sangomas for promoting fertility. An annual Diggers Festival is held in September.
Route 569 Crafts
Psst, mister, wanna buy a hornbill? Don't panic, this is not trade in endangered species, but part of a local craft tradition that's been a feature of the tract of road between White River and Hazyview in Mpumalanga. Some are fairly crude and decorated in the old way, by burning feathers and camouflage patterns onto the wooden sculptures of birds and while more recent innovations include the use of shoe polish and paint.
It's always nice to bring home a memento of a holiday. There are now four proper community arts and crafts centres established at each of the main southern routes into the Kruger National Park, so stop and take a look next time you’re going that way.
Stone Garden
Not much is known about what the artist in question, Nukain Mabusa, called his ‘Garden of Flowers’ in Mpumalanga. Travel photographer extraordinaire Obie Oberholzer tried to elicit the story from the artist for his book Southern Circle, but the naive 'landscape artist' of Krokodilpoort would say only that he did it out of boredom.
After he created his garden of decorated boulders, he would sit in the shade of a thorn tree beside the R38, between Mbombela/Nelspruit and Barberton, and charge people who stopped to take a look or find out more. We trust they got their money's worth from the bored artist. Unfortunately, with his passing on to that great art gallery in the sky, his rocks on Mother Earth have faded somewhat.
Lunar Landing
It's hard to tell if farming at Verraaiersnek, near Robber's Pass Mashishing / Lydenburg and Pilgrim's Rest, is really good, or really bad. Clearly, one farmer had enough time to create a sculpture garden on either side of the R36, teeming with game animals and other oddities, including three full-sized elephants, huge dinosaurs, and village and farm scenes. Among them are tableaus of young people pumping water and wild dogs hunting down a wildebeest.
We suspect it's the same person who has created a similar town garden in Mashishing, or perhaps one was the mentor and the other the apprentice. Who knows? Few people seem to stop to look more closely. There are also some rumours that they were created by the late Dick Heysteck. The name, though, suggests aliens might have.