By Liz Clarke
Durban - Right in the heart of Durban, a vibrant treasure house of African culture and traditions, even the things you thought you knew, but didn’t, are there, waiting to be discovered by the tourist, accidental or otherwise.
The name to look out for along Esther Roberts Road (formerly Frere Road) is the Phansi Museum (pronounced “pun-zi” and meaning “below” or “beneath” in Zulu, after the basement location where it began. Phansi is also the place beneath, where the ancestral spirits dwell).
The collection is housed in Roberts House, a fully restored Victorian home in Glenwood, built in 1898, and now a national monument.
Museum hostess and tour-guide Phumzile Nkosi knows the history backwards. Descended from Swazi royalty, she is the one who brings it to life, unfolding the history in such a way you could swear the ancestors are with you.
“I live it. I breathe it,” she says. “It’s our history and I want people to know it. The scary thing is that it could so easily have been lost.”
Evocative, even ghostly, is the display of about 30 life-size puppet dolls, dressed in ceremonial attire from various regions and cultures throughout Southern Africa. They’ve been exhibited in New York but for now they are back in Durban, plus new additions, including a trio of traditional sangomas weaving their magic.
It’s amazing what you can learn in three-quarters-of-an-hour from somebody like Nkosi.
You’ll learn that leg adornments were an intrinsic part of the courting ritual in that it moved the eye from the more provocative areas of the body; that masks of split bamboo were worn by unmarried women to hide their face in much the same way as a burka; that safety pins were such a rarity that they were used to adorn ceremonial costumes and that marriage cloaks were intricately crocheted, mimicking perhaps the craftwork done by early Victorian women.
Even those who have lived in the city all their lives will be blown away by the collection housed under these century-old rooftops, and one can’t help but come away from this permanent exhibition with a newfound respect for the history and richness of KwaZulu-Natal in the days when ancient crafts and mythical beliefs reigned supreme.
Max Mikula is the Museum director, a post inherited from his family whose passion for collecting Zulu memorabilia from far-flung areas of the province and beyond are the basis for one of the biggest collections of African artefacts and traditional craftwork in the world.
Artefacts include beadwork from KZN, the Eastern Cape and from the Ndebele people.
Three floors of this Victorian mansion are packed with Zulu beadwork, earplugs, wire baskets, milk pails, beer pots and fertility dolls; Ndebele blankets and ceremonial items, and artefacts from the Eastern Cape, Namibia and Kenya, each with their own story.
The museum opened in 2000 but it wasn’t until 2005 that an injection of funds by the Bartel Arts Trust allowed for expansion beyond the basement floor of the building.
“Even then, with all the publicity we had at the time, I don’t think enough people know about us,” says Mikula.
“We need to inspire local people about their own distinctive culture – especially school children and learners – with the hope that they will take ownership and pride in our beautiful South African heritage.”
He is hoping the lottery will come to their aid in a project he sees as vital.
“We survive on donations and the tours we put together,” he says.
“But what we really need is to set up an interactive computer display platform that not only documents the valuable items we have in our collection but would allow students to use the information for school and tertiary education projects.”
If that happens, he’ll sing from the Victorian rooftops.
If You Go...
Esther Roberts’s house was built by her parents in 1896. Roberts was born in this house and died there in 1980. She was one of the first female anthropologists in South Africa and a key member of the Black Sash.
From time to time the museum showcases original music, performing arts and oral history and produces an annual calendar which has become a collectors’ item.
The museum has a partnership with the Amazwi Abesifazane (Voices of Women) memory cloth project, and houses an archive of more than 2 000 memory cloths.
The BAT Shop is now based at the museum, and sells funky local crafts.
Open 8am-4pm Mon-Fri, weekends by appointment. Entrance fee (includes a museum tour): Adults R40, students R28.
The museum is governed by the Phansi Museum Trust, a registered Non-Profit Organisation. Call 031 206 2889 or visit www.phansi.com for more information. - Sunday Tribune