TWANANANI TEXTILES
MBHOKOTA VILLAGE, LIMPOPO, SOUTH AFRICA
In 1983, a group of local women from Mbhokota and neighbouring villages, came together to start their own small textiles business. Starting out from four of the women’s homes, they now run Twananani Textiles from their own workshop, including a creche so they can stay close to their young children while they work. One less thing these busy mothers have to worry about.
In this part of Africa, it is traditional for the women of the Tsonga Tribe to decorate their homes with colourful wall murals, featuring meaningful symbols to tell stories of their culture.
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Over the years, many of the traditional homes have been modernised into brick structures, so a lot of the original artwork, and the stories they tell, are disappearing.
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The ladies at Twananani are inspired to keep this tradition alive, taking symbols and Tsonga patterns and stitching them onto cloth to create beautiful textiles for the home.
Their textile designs are bold and vibrant, featuring traditional techniques such as batik, hand painting with candle wax, block printing (using homemade carved wooden blocks), embroidery and beading. The result for every piece is unique, and handcrafted down to every stitch and homemade dye.
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As well as textiles, they also produce beaded jewellery and handbags. They sell many decorated cloths, or “nchekas” as they are locally known, a traditional Tsonga sarong that can be used as a throw to decorate any space.
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