Oodi weavers founding fathers lament

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday November 8, 2010 00:00

An artist himself, (sculptor and painter) who was kicked out of South Africa by the apartheid regime where he had set up a similar project, Rocke's Drift, in Natal and Thabana Li' Mele in Lesotho, Gowenius told The Monitor that perhaps the biggest mistake he made was to leave the project unsupervised.

The very zeal of empowerment brought this pensioner back after leaving Botswana in 1974, not because he intended to, but for security reasons as South African police officers had come to him twice here.  'When the project started in 1972, my primary objective was to instil confidence in these people. I wanted them to believe they could manage themselves and make a living,' Gowenius said.

When he first assembled the group, consisting mostly of women from the three neighbouring villages of Oodi, Matebele and Modipane, he believed their little weaving skills, beefed up with management skills would produce a successful tapestry business in Oodi, which he still believes in. He added that it is very unfortunate that the business is no longer profitable and is instead cash-strapped. 

Gowenius, who was on a three-day visit to Botswana, chiefly to check on the Oodi Weavers progress, said it felt good to see the project running after '30+ years of establishment'. However, the septuagenarian's countenance told a sad story, he was in remorse as he shared the journey of the Oodi Weavers and how he had thought highly of the project.  'I hoped it would go a long way in sustaining the lives of its shareholders,' Gowenius, who is no longer a shareholder in the project, said.

Going down memory lane, he remembered how difficult it was to get the project started. He said they had lots of difficulties with the Land Board authorities, as it took long for the project to be allocated land. Another setback, he said, was unavailability of water in the village as people had to travel about eight kilometres to draw water. He added that they discussed the issue with the relevant authorities and reasoned with them that the project could not start if the village did not have water.

'The project was uplifting to the village, as it finally got water connection - and at that time there was a drought in the country,' he recalled.  Finally they got down to work, starting with a month training of 52 people, which later downsized to 30, 90 percent of which were women. His late wife Ulla, who was gifted in tapestry, facilitated the training.

Then the people started work at the tapestry as apprentices for a year, during which they were obliged to save 20 percent of their wages, which was P110 then.  'This percentage of their wages was meant to help them buy shares and own the project,' he said. In additional to a bank loan that the project got from a local bank, whose name he does not remember, the cooperative got funding from an international organisation called Christian Council and Development Corporation and CUSO. Gowenius concurred that this cooperative, which once commanded much respect, both domestically and internationally, has now lost it. He attributed this to the fact that members had minimal education and were reluctant to accept help from people who wanted to lend a hand either financially or artistically.

'They clung to what I told them that they had to own the project,' he said.

He added that although the women also stuck to the old ways of doing tapestry they did bring in elements of modern times to align the business with changes the country was undergoing.  Gowenius reminisced that there was one popular tapestry that showcased a number of women with one man standing to show the social effects of migrant labourers to South African mines. Subsequently, artists in Rocke's Drift were painting the opposite - lots of men against one woman!  Asked whether conveying topical messages is still employed by the Oodi weavers, Gowenius said they no longer do it but for a valid reason. 

'The market is more into paintings that depict village scenes,' he said adding that the concept worked well as it was very important due to events of that time to use art as a voice of change given the political and social problems of the era. He also could not agree more with Dennis Lewycky, who in his book, 'Equal Shares; Oodi Weavers and the cooperative experience', attributed the fall of the project mainly due to 'lack of capital investment, lack of education and training in management issues'. Gowenius added that marketing is also a major challenge, and that the tapestries need new ideas, as they are static.

  'My other fear is that the project will die when these women die, because the skill has not been passed on to young people,' he said with a worried voice.  Asked whether he will do something soon to breathe new life into the project, he said because of old age he cannot do more but will consult first with his wife. 

Of the three projects he fathered, Rocke's Drift is the only one that is still going strong, Thabana Li' Mele was closed two years after establishment due to political pressure and Oodi Weavers is on the verge of closure as it is no longer profitable. 'I wish it could last a life time, as it proved to be a sustainable project evidenced by the fact that it carried on for more than 30 years compared to others which collapsed at infancy,' he said.