This article was published in The Citizen Newspaper – Tanzania on 20th June 2023.
Growing up two decades ago it was common to see adults, young adults and children getting passionately involved with handicrafts. For some, handicrafts were their engagement when they have time to spare, for others it was an after-work engagement.
For some, it was a way of taking rest and getting themselves away from regular work, and making the most of family time. Moreso, for others it was a dedicated artistic expression and a full-time engagement with financial goals. Locally, it was almost expressively competitive among particular crafts mates. We can say there was a ‘vibe’ for handicrafts.
The tip-top indicators were creativity and determination. Handicraft was done with goals and targets. My mother, for example, wove decorated living room linens and table clothes which we used at home.
Other adults, male and female, were involved with traditional Do-It-Yourself (DIYs) crafts like mat weaving, wood carvings, pottery, wicker and rattan basket making, hair plaiting, tools’ handles shaping, decoration, metal work, musical instruments making, leatherworks, cloth dying, and many others. These were exciting to learn.
It is not the same today as the digital excitement is widespread and young people are majorly no longer fascinated with slowly achieving, arduous and time-consuming engagements like weaving, beadwork, carving, knitting, etc.
Young people today, rather widely fancy the popular, influential, ‘photographable’ and socially approved – especially through social media; Convenience and fast-achieving financial potency are key.
Priority is, however, given to things that have a Western taste, which is universalised at our end as the standard for goodness, beauty and acceptability.
Traditional crafts are becoming less popular by the day, and many are slowly becoming relics associated with past generations. Today a young lady who chooses to wear hand-plaited natural hair is looked at as backward and poor, or rather ‘bankrupt’. This is because natural beauty is not what the digital vibe in on about.
Skills that have evolved in society for centuries will not magically come back to life unless they are progressively promoted, valued, and passed on through generations.
Though some traditional crafts necessarily needed the methodical and technical refinement and progress that modern technology offers, many, just as they were then done, will still add value to today’s daily life, which is fundamentally an all-around practical adventure.
While the influence of the digital vibe is being felt by all generations, with communication becoming digital and global chances are that younger generations may lose the sense of value that is attached to such things, histories, artefacts, and skills that have helped sustain the bigger and unique portion of most of our cultures.
Looking at the bigger picture, learning craft creates avenues for possible alternative sources of income later in life, as all types of creative crafts have economic potential. One can have outstanding academic credentials but in the absence of the avenues specific to the respective credentials one might find it difficult to cope.
Our learning system too should recognise and encourage handicrafts beginning from primary schools. This makes children find joy in things that are practical and real.
Computers, the internet, and digital skills are important, and actually almost basic, but they are not everything. It is dignifying when a child has some skills with which they can physically do something creative using their mental and physical abilities.
I encountered a child who was overly proud because he owns pricey cars in the video game. These things make children happy but do not add much value. Placing this child on a see-saw balance with a child who is skilled in real handicrafts, the latter will outstandingly be ahead.
A craft learnt is a tool one hardly loses. For a child, it is useful for boosting maturity, accountability and a sense of responsibility. Handicrafts are also healthy preoccupations for young people as compared to them getting overindulged in the digital world.
Involvement in crafts creates an opportunity to meet people with similar interests – something everyone wishes for themselves. Handicrafts allow especially young people, to explore readily and freely their strengths, talents, and capacities for imagination, creativity and inventiveness, all of which contribute to them attaining mastery and perfection.
In rural areas where people are still conservative, and live in extended families, close to, or with grandparents, children still learn traditional handicrafts. This is different in the cities where there is a mixed population with no particular culture emphasized – except the ‘popular’ culture.
With city children being more exposed, many disregard craft and consider deemed easier options as the suitable and only options.
It is now down on parents, guardians, and teachers to introduce children and young people to handicrafts, and most importantly, to teach them not to be ashamed of identifying with and involving themselves in cultural and traditional creative expression.
