The Depository · Browse · Africa
The Depository documents 6 techniques in South Africa; by risk level: 4 vulnerable, 1 thriving. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
The freehand painting of bold, high-contrast geometric mural patterns onto homestead walls, and the beadwork of ceremonial patterned jewelry, by Southern Ndebele women of South Africa's Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces, an artistic…
The stringing of small glass beads into geometrically patterned, color- and shape-coded ornaments by Zulu women of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, constituting a formally documented visual-communication system in its own right, sometimes…
The hand-harvesting, cutting, bruising, oxidative fermentation, and sun-drying of Aspalathus linearis leaves into rooibos tea, a plant growing wild -- and, to this day, exclusively commercially cultivable -- only in the Cederberg mountain…
The hand-excavation of diamond-bearing volcanic pipe rock at Colesberg Kopje, Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa, using picks, shovels, and crowbars on small individually held claims -- collectively producing what is widely regarded as…
The carving of large hemispherical resonator drums from a single piece of solid wood by Venda craftsmen of northern South Africa (Limpopo province), most famously exemplified by the ngoma lungundu ('the drum that thunders'), the sacred…
The hand-coiled construction, incised or raised decoration, and controlled blackened firing of clay vessels by Xhosa and Zulu women of South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, historically the primary makers of household pottery for…