Intluzo - The Art Of Weaving A Traditional Xhosa Beer Strainer

The article we are publishing today is a nice follow-up on our last article about Welile, the cane weaver. Welile is using cane to create his baskets and he makes use of a relatively easy method of weaving.

But there are African weaving techniques, that are much older - nobody really knows how old they are because they have been around for centuries. Nowadays their continued existence is in danger. 

The item I want to introduce you to today is called Intluzo. Intluzo is a handmade strainer, that is used to strain the traditional brewed Xhosa beer.

Chandelier Made From 5 Beerstrainers

Umqombothi is the name for the traditional home brew still loved by many Xhosa men and women in the rural regions, especially in the moutaineous beautiful areas of the Transkei. Fat livestock roams on green hills when the rain is good.
Art and Craft always express society. We want to show you some pictures of the Transkei so that our foreign readers understand the type of environment in which this product developed over the years.

A Xhosa Village

Nguni Cattle

The Vastness  of the Transkei

Green hills and fertile soil

A Xhosa Homestead

A Bird's Eye View

Give Me Color

Built With Mud

Wooden Fence

   

But the Intluzo was also used for straining thin porridge for the children. It served the elders as well as the youngsters. Symbolically it was a very important item in a traditional Xhosa household. It was  given as a wedding gift to the newly married.

The strainers are made by sewing together many strands of carefully prepared twisted sedge stems. It is a complicated and time consuming technique and only a few crafterrs, mostly old men are left with this skill. It takes a great amount of patience to learn this skill and to pass it on to the younger generation. And at this point the string of passing on traditions is broken. 

Detail of the weaving technique

 In a rapidly evolving South African society, that tends towards urbanization, consumerism and easy acceptance of American and European ideologies and values, young people are not interested anymore in learning this craft. In the first place there is no interest in staying in the villages in the rural areas-understandably because there are very few job opportunities. 

But also to follow in their father's footsteps and become a farmer and learn how to make beer strainers does not make sense in 2012.

Intluzo is a traditional Xhosa product born out of the traditions and the culture of the Transkei. As such it has great heritage value.

Every society faces the need to evolve and to re-evaluate its traditions. Some traditions can not be kept and they will vanish by themselves because the members of society are not willing to support them anymore They are out of time.Others have great historical value and should be conserved.

If they can not find a place anymore in the society in the original role they fulfilled, then they should be kept and curated in the field of art and design as a reminder. The weaving of the traditional Xhosa beer strainers is one such tradition, that deserves to be remembered.

I would like to show you a product that has been made from Intluzos.  A chandelier made from five beerstrainerss. It is a product designed to keep this technique alive. It is a creation of Annegret Mostert who has also designed the set of traditional Xhosa wedding gifts. Keeping this technique alive by supporting old crafters financially through buying the strainers from them in the villages might be an incentive that younger people might still want to learn how to weave the beer strainers.