YOU are in a hurry. You reach for a bottle on
the table, but it slips from your grasp, falls to the floor, and breaks. You
sigh, sweep up the broken pieces, and dump them into the wastebasket. As far as
you are concerned, that is the end of the matter.
If you lived in Bida, Nigeria, that might be
just the beginning. Why? Because among the Nupe people who live there,
craftsmen can take a broken bottle and make from it a beautiful string of
beads. It is an art that has been passed on from generation to generation—one
that has changed little over centuries of time.
Beadmaking in Bida
The workshop is a small, round hut made of
dried mud. In the center of the floor stands an earthenware kiln. Into the
kiln, craftsmen drop pieces of wood, which they set ablaze. The fire is fanned
to a roar by hand-operated bellows. As more sticks are added, a red flame rises
above the top of the kiln. A bottle is suspended on a rod over the kiln, and
soon the glass softens and hangs molten.
The beadmaker makes beads one at a time. He
lays a pointed rod over the fire next to the rod that suspends the glass. When
the pointed end becomes a glowing red, he moves it to the hanging glob of
molten glass. Then, by turning the rod with his fingers, he wraps a bead-size
portion of glass onto it.
Next, using a long, flat bush knife, he
smooths and shapes the glass into a bead. If he is especially skilled, he may
work with several colors of glass, overlaying a pattern on each bead he makes.
Finally, he uses the knife to gently ease the bead off the rod into a pan of
ash where it will cool. The bead is now complete. The hole made by the rod
becomes the hole used to string the bead. All that remains is to wash the bead
and then thread it with other beads to make a necklace.
Learning the Art
How does one learn the art of beadmaking?
Nupe children begin by watching. By the time they reach ten years of age, they
help collect and cut the firewood.
The next step is to master the bellows. The
bellows are twin bags made of cloth, each of which is connected to a stick. To
operate the bellows, the “blower” must hold a stick in each hand and rapidly
move them up and down. He needs both strength and coordination. He must be strong
enough to constantly pump the bellows throughout the beadmaking session, and a
session can last for hours!
He must also be coordinated enough to
maintain a rapid, constant rhythm, pumping the bellows at precisely the correct
speed. If he pumps too slowly, the heat of the fire will not make the glass
soft enough to work with. If he pumps too quickly, the heat produced may cause
the glass to fall from the rod into the fire.
Typically, an apprentice beadmaker will
handle the bellows for five years. Finally, he learns how to fashion beads.
Part of the challenge of this job is to learn to endure the heat from the fire,
which, added to the tropical heat of the sun, can be a test.
He learns progressively. After helping an
experienced beadmaker with the handling of the rods, the apprentice learns to
form small, plain beads. In time, he progresses to making larger beads and
beads adorned with an overlaid pattern of glass of another color. Experienced
beadmakers make the job look easy, but it takes time to master the skill
necessary to produce a series of beads, one bead at a time, all of uniform
size, shape, and pattern.
Beadmaking is an enjoyable art. The
beadmakers delight in seeing people throughout the country adorned with their
colorful beads—tiny beads worn by children, delicately crafted beads worn by
women, and heavy ceremonial beads worn by men. There is enjoyment too at
festival times when people gather around the workshop to sing and dance to the
rhythm of the bellows.
Says the book History of West
Africa: “Nupe artistic production in . . . glass
. . . is still some of the best on the continent.” Others agree. Said
one Christian missionary: “We bought beads from Bida as well as other places to
give to our friends and family when we went on vacation. When we got to the
United States, our friends chose the beads from Bida every time!”
For more informative artciles please go to www.jw.org
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