This story began almost two years prior to my adventure. The primary purpose of the visit was to teach five men to use machinery to make furniture. It is hoped that the skills they learned would provide an income, but also meet a need.
I had been told of a workshop in a remote town in South Africa called Tugela Ferry in the Kwazulu-Natal or Zulu state. The only state governed by a King and Chiefs in a tribal system. Tugela is a town approximately two hours from Durban situated in a valley along the Tugela River. Once a ferry crossing, the ferry has long since been replaced by a bridge I am reliably informed by Pastor Stephen Anderson, our guide for the trip. With me are two travelling companions Rod and Pam, a retired couple,who attend the church that sponsored our trip.
Our purpose was to visit a mission run by The Rock of Life church in Tugela Ferry. As a part of its mission, it runs a school, an orphanage – though not like a western orphanage, as up to 900 children are supported off site in the surrounding area – a commercial bakery that supports and feeds the orphanage as well as supplying the local supermarket, and a wood workshop. The church is also in the process of setting up a mechanics workshop as the cost of fixing a car is burdensome. It is a simple way to help those less fortunate. In an interesting aside, the bakery is called the Lobethal Bakery. Why Lobethal? The name is in honour of the Lobethal Bakery in South Australia, which donated the bakery and equipment to the mission.
The wood workshop itself was incredibly well set up, with a panel saw, thicknesser, jointer, spindle moulder, stroke sander, lathe and dust extraction. It turned out that this workshop was better equipped than my own. However, no one had ever been shown how to use it. It was in use two years prior, but the workshop was closed after someone cut two fingers off. All of the machinery was donated from Germany; a connection that was made through a German missionary who had been working with the church. The workshop had been set up but relatively unused for 15 years. It was my privilege to make it operational again. Some of the furniture made was for a crèche that was being built in Msinga Top, a short drive from the mission. The timber for the crèche furniture was donated by the local timber mill.
The work began months before I arrived. Baba Mntungwa, (Baba is an affectionate respectful term for older men) had been systematically cleaning the workshop and putting things in order for my arrival. Baba Mntungwa, who had been out of prison for less than a year when I arrived, was given two death penalties towards the end of South Africa’s apartheid era for in his own words ‘doing bad things’ – it was not a period he liked to dwell on. He subsequently converted to Christianity while imprisoned, and by God’s grace the sentence was reduced to life. Mercifully he was released after serving 24 years. He is to this day one of the most gentle men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.
We landed in Johannesburg On a Friday night after a 13 hour flight from Sydney. We then boarded an hour later – a plane to Durban. We stayed the night in Durban and were picked up the next morning by Matthias; the aforementioned German missionary. On the way to Tugela we stopped in Pietermaritzburg to purchase tools and equipment that would be donated to the mission and workshop. The money for tools and timber was provided by Grace Community Church in Seven Hills Sydney,Heartwood Creative Woodworking in St Peters Sydney, and an anonymous donor who pitched in for tools, timber and other associated costs.
The work began at 8am on Monday morning. There were five men who came to be taught, Baba Mntungwa, Geoffrey Busoni Zondi, and his brother Oupa Zondi, Mnqobi Mntungwa, and William, a man who spoke almost no English. It is the younger generation that speak English. William was in his sixties, which I am told is old for a Zulu man in Tugela. He was a likeable man with an infectious laugh who worked in the mines and clearly was a great storyteller as at various times I would come across the men in fits of laughter after hearing one of his stories. In fact, he had me laughing once as he re-enacted a hilarious mining mishap for us all.
I could never pronounce William's Zulu name properly. The Zulu language is wonderful and pronounced as it is read. It makes perfect phonetic sense. However there are some sounds which are hard for westerners to make with a series of clicks made with the tongue or at the back of the mouth that are just not found in the English language, and so, proved hard to master.
Our first lesson was to mark out the timber for the furniture. We had decided to make two beds and an upholstered settee. The upholstery was to be done by Baba Mntungwa, who had acquired the skill while in prison.
The designs came from a book I had, written by Raf Nathan; an Australian furniture maker and co-founder of Australian Wood Review magazine. Once we had worked out all of the pieces we needed, I demonstrated how to use the panel saw to cut the pieces out oversize. It was quite an experience showing them how to use the machinery not knowing at first how well I had been understood. All of the men picked it up very quickly though, spurred on by an insatiable thirst for knowledge they had previously never dreamed of.
The next step was to demonstrate the jointer – for flattening a face – and the thicknesser – for making a piece of timber a uniform thickness. Once this had been done, we cut pieces down to a finished size and began to look at the joinery. The beds were to be dowelled, and fixed with a bolt and threaded inserts. The settee, a form of lounge chair, was to be put together with mortise and tenon joints.
The purpose of having the two different types of joinery was so that in the period of time that we had, we could extend the learning. When I had left, the men could demonstrate to each other the different skills they had learned. All the joinery demonstrations were shown to everyone so that the information could be more readily absorbed when they had to talk about it or demonstrate to each other.
By the third or fourth day, I could step back a little bit as the men were all relatively confident on the machines. It had been draining the first few days having to demonstrate and explain constantly and keep a watch on what all of the men were doing just in case something were about to go wrong. It became quite a joy seeing each one progress in confidence and understanding. Things became easier now as I was no longer having to teach from scratch. Everything from then on was just building on what they already understood.
In the last few days I was there, we began to look at pricing. This was hard for me initially as I was unsure what a day’s wage was. In Kwazulu Natal, there is I am told, roughly 70% unemployment. It is not that there are no skills, it is rather that there is a lack of demand. One of the men who worked with me was employed six months of the year ploughing fields for farmers, but the other six he did whatever he could find to support a wife and four children. He had a mobile phone, but circumstances are such that rather than this being an unnecessary expense, it was vital. If he did not have a phone, he would get no work. Employers hardly have the time to go doorknocking, and work is on a contract by contract basis, so the phone becomes then the only means by which he could be contacted when work was on offer.
The rate by which we priced the furniture, was on the same rate as a baker, as we had a baker nearby we could find out what they were paid. 80Rand per day and 120Rand for a manager. When I was there, $1 AUD was equivalent to 10Rand. So a baker was earning $8 AUD per day. On this wage, one could get by.
The church hosted us for two weeks with the most wonderful hospitality. We were fed western food the whole time we were there. Rod busied himself with general maintenance, fixing four broken toilets and numerous other things and proved to be a great blessing to them as he was able to show someone else how to make repairs. Now there should be less things that fall into disrepair. Pam, Rods wife also helped out, showing the Zulu women some craft, even doing some painting of rooms at the orphanage. Their church congregation put together some money for us to go on a surprise weekend away at the Drakensburg. This is a mountain range with a small stream that becomes a tributary to the Tugela River.
Two weeks was not really long enough, but it was all the time I could afford to take off. The hope now is that what has been learnt will help to provide an income and a chance at a new life and direction for the men and the workshop at the mission. There is a long way to go. I may return at some stage in the future. However a return trip would have to be longer to really build on what currently exists. It would be nice to think that the workshop at the mission could become a centre of craft excellence.
All in all it was a wonderful experience. I met some beautiful people and it was a privilege to share some of my skills and expertise with people who had a genuine need. It was two weeks of satisfaction in which I never once thought of home. I had never dreamed that being a furniture maker would take me to Africa, who knows where else?
Since our return, I have been informed that my students have had some orders come in and I have heard whisperings now that they would also like to learn to make and install kitchens, but that will be a part of my next adventure…
Tim Noone is a furniture designer/maker and accredited member of Studio Woodworkers Australia. Contact Tim via his website.