'Long Tears' and other Beadwork
Looking at the visual language of Esther Mahlangu's beadwork in relation to its broader history, tradition, and modern interpretations
By Art of Contemporary Africa
Content curated from the "Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting": Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective exhibition documentation and timeline
Mahlangu at BotshabeloArt of Contemporary Africa
The history of the beadwork
When speaking about the beadwork, Mahlangu often points towards how the practice reminds her of her mother and how their generation interpreted painted umgwalo motifs inspired by beadwork and visa versa.
Beaded items also play a vital role in acting as visual cues of a woman’s changing identity. Different items are worn at different life stages from childhood, through puberty, and into adulthood, with each type of beadwork reflecting the wearer's current status and role. As we have no photographic documentation of Mahlangu during her childhood and puberty, this story begins with the beadwork that marks her adulthood.
Kinds of beaded aprons worn by Mahlangu
In this image from 1997, we see a variety of aprons: Mahlangu (left) wears the tjorholo, an item traditionally worn by married women at ceremonial occasions. The amaphotho worn by the large doll and Rosinah Mahlangu (right) are considered less formal aprons for married women.
Mahlangu is often pictured wearing the more formal tjorholo. The tjorholo is an initial symbol of marriage and its base is prepared by the woman's husband-to-be from goatskin, leather or canvas.
Traditionally, the tjorholo is worn without beads for the first few months of marriage before it decorated by the new wife (trimmed with a simple edge of beads) and her mother-in-law (who adds more ornate designs and fills in the tjorholo with beadwork). The tjorholo includes five hanging flaps (as we can see on the image of Mahlangu on the left taken in the early 80s) and small flaps are added on the side when a woman has given birth to children (see image on the right from 1997).
BotshabeloArt of Contemporary Africa
'iNyoka'
This beaded panel has a name which translates to "snake" and is part of the bridal apparel. linyoka can be of various widths and lengths and contains beaded motifs which can either be centralized on the panel or stretch down covering the full length as with this example.
It is worth taking pause here to note that though these beaded items have cultural significance and traditional mode of being worn, they have since been used more broadly and differently. For example the inyoka is supposed to trail on the ground behind a bride and make patterns in the ground as she dances but in the image above, it is held by another woman who worked alongside Mahlangu at Botshabelo.
'Umlingakobe'
'Umlingakobe' meaning “long tears,” is a beaded accessory worn by the mother of initiates when their sons come of age and successfully complete the initiation.
Much like inyoka, this item has been used less traditionally by Mahlangu and sold as an ornament at some stage of her career. In a more traditional context, the beadwork on the umlingakobe is meant to reflect the patterns and colours of a particular blanket worn with the umlingakobe on the occasion of its use.
This list has so far provided many examples of beaded items which have since been taken out of their ceremonial context and used as more regular wear or commercial items. In Mahlangu's context, due to the high volumes of work she was producing, she often wore this on the occasion of umgwalo being completed as celebration in and of itself.
Beaded blanketArt of Contemporary Africa
'ikumbese/umbhalo/igubo'
iKumbese/umbhalo/igubo refers to the blanket worn around the shoulders and pinned. It often includes glass-beaded panels and trimming sewn into the fabric. This 2009 ingubo was part of Mahlangu's display for the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa and includes clear references to this event.
In this slide we see iingubo made by Mahlangu in 2003 (left) in comparison to the 2009 ngubo as well as the miniature versions over the dolls (right). The 2009 ingubo is styled over the "Middelburg blanket", named after the region where the panels of red, yellow, blue, green and brown were popularised. The 2003 ingubo has been more fully beaded with little of the original blanket fabric showing. It shows a diverse approach to the kinds of iigubo beading as they are used as display pieces.
Installation view of Esther Mahlangu's Retrospective: Then I Knew I Was Good At Painting (2023)Art of Contemporary Africa
The dolls
Historically referred to as "fertility dolls", these dolls are more of a beaded commodity than an item used in traditional practice. Over the years they have primarily served as reflection of the creator's beadwork style & beadwork fashion during the times they were produced.
These dolls are not dated but they show Mahlangu's unique approach to making the dolls and their characteristics. For example, Mahlangu's beaded dolls have a line down the centre of their faces and a brush like finish for the feet which mirrors the trimmings on the amaphotho worn by the figures.
Beaded panels as artworks
Though sometimes presented in a panelled form (as seen here) and incorporated into the blanket designs, the beadwork medium is not restricted only to the traditional. Beadwork also comes to reflect the modern shifts and Mahlangu's beadwork encompasses this.
These two examples of beadwork displayed for Mahlangu's retrospective show how the beadwork panels can reflect different moments influenced by Mahlangu's travels (image on the right inspired by her trips to the US in the mid to late 90s) and the shift in architecture of her home (image on the left which mirrors designs of buildings in her homestead).
We see references to these beaded over 3D objects from as far back as c. 1939-1949 though in a smaller format than in the work done by Mahlangu. This beaded rifle from 2003 has a wooden frame with canvas stretched over and beaded over on both sides.
A special thanks to Shalort Sibanyoni for providing the correct vocabulary and spelling for isiNdebele.
The images in this story were graciously offered by Esther Mahlangu's Family Archives during the course of research. These images were then made accessible to public in the exhibition timeline of "Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting": Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective (2024-2025). Other images in this story are documentation taken at the two installations of this retrospective in Cape Town and Johannesburg (South Africa).
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