Self-representation in the works of Busisiwe Nzama : An analysis of the Frida ‘ little travellers ’ and more

The focus of this article is on ‘little travellers’, a form of figure making associated with Woza Moya, an arts and craft project based in Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal. This article tracks and analyses the creation of two variations of the Frida ‘little traveller’ created by a Woza Moya bead artist, Busisiwe Nzama, in partnership with the Director of the project, Paula Thomson. My data-gathering process was conducted over an eleven-month period of observations interspersed with conversations, photographing and interviews with the objective of deepening an understanding of the co-design and co-creation process between a stakeholder from the arts and craft non-governmental sector and societal practice partners. The study conducted found that an analysis of this process of partnership allows a deepened understanding of the historical realities of an individual expressed through beadworks. Some ‘little travellers’ by Nzama take their inspiration from the work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. As with Kahlo, much of Nzama’s work is concerned with self-representation. While Nzama and Kahlo treat the subject of self-representation differently, both artists indicate ways in which the self becomes infused in a work of art. This aspect of the ‘little travellers’ conceptualisation enables me to explore the similarities between Nzama and Kahlo’s bodies of work.

Number 34, 2020 ISSN 2617-3255 a large number of characters within the 'little traveller' range, the work presented in this article tracks and analyses the creation of two variations of the Frida 'little travellers' created by a Woza Moya bead artist, Busisiwe Nzama ( Figure 1). While associated with her, the designing process itself is a collaboration between her and Thomson. This article tracks the co-design and co-creation process between the two. My data gathering process took place over an eleven-month period and entailed interacting with the bead artist as well as with the Director. Although Thomson is the Director, she is also involved in the early stages of the design process for most beaded items. The data gathering process involved observations, conversations and photographing, as well as two sets of formal interviews. The aim of this endeavour was to understand the collaborative beadmaking process between Thomson and Nzama. 3 The two Frida 'little travellers' created by B. Nzama. Photo: P. Thomson. Used with permission. Nzama's work, and to some extent her journey as an individual, seem to parallel certain aspects of Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, who is the subject of Nzama's current work. This claim is made because during fieldwork, I discovered past 'little travellers' by the bead artist in which the theme of self-representation was evident. As it will be shown in this article, these items by Nzama indicate ways in which she expresses herself, the beader, as a mother, a spiritual being and as an artist who constantly expands her catalogue of characters. These layers of Nzama's identity are understood as the multiplicities of Africana womanism, a concept coined and developed by Clenora Hudson-Weems (1998) to denote continental Africans and Africans in the diaspora. Hudson-Weems (1998:24) explains that womanism 'focuses on the unique experiences, struggles, needs and desires of Africana women'. Furthermore, the author conceptualises and associates the Africana womanist with being a self-namer and self-definer, and a family-centred, strong, whole, spiritual, mothering and nurturing woman, amongst other things (Hudson-Weems 1998). For these reasons, this article demonstrates that when doing an analysis of the design and creation process, certain aspects of historical realities, which are expressed through beadwork, are unearthed by the investigator.

The beginning of the 'little travellers' project
Since 'little travellers' are figures, it is important that some aspects of the history of figure-and doll-mak-ing in the South African context is considered ahead of looking at the practice specific to Woza Moya. According to Morris and Preston-Whyte (1994:54), certain types of figures formed part of entertainment for young girls while others, made by young women of marriageable age, were offered to lovers who sometimes hung them over their shoulders on beaded strings. Once facial features were incorporated in the design of the figures, the meaning changed to no longer signal an interest in a lover, but rather to attract a tourist market (Morris & Preston-Whyte 1994;Jolles 1994). Frank Jolles (1994) further states that a traceable period for the trade of these types of dolls in Natal goes as far back as the 1930s. The use of the word "dolls" as an all-encompassing term has, however, attracted debate for its infantilising implications. One such debate is by Elizabeth Dell (1998).
In her introductory essay to Evocations of the Child, Dell (1998:11) discusses the importance of interrogating and distinguishing between figures made for play and sale, and those used within the context of courtship and marriage. Dell (1998:11) indicates that the term "dolls" 'allowed them to be dismissed as lightweight, the plaything of the child'. For this reason, the word "doll" is used when referring to figures created for play, while the phrase "child figures" is applied when referring to fecundity. While it is unclear what the purchaser does with 'little travellers', their design is finished off with brooch pins, implying that they are designed for a purpose other than play. In addition, the 'little travellers' that are discussed later in the article were created by Nzama to self-represent, and not for play.
It is for these reasons that the word "doll" is insufficient and "figures" is a more appropriate term for purposes of this article. -Whyte (1994:54) assert that figure-making in KwaZulu-Natal was practiced mainly in the Msinga region. According to Jolles (1994; there are two methods of the making process. In his studies, Jolles (1994:58;1998:105) uses KwaLatha as a location and explains that:

Morris and Preston
The first category may be subdivided into figures of clay and figures created from corncobs and cloth. Clay figures are made by both boys and girls. The clay, found in only a few places in the valleys, is generally sandy and fairly coarse […] After being moulded into shape and allowed to dry completely, the figures are placed on a bed of dry grass in a shallow hole in the ground and covered with a large quantity of dry cow dung, which is set alight […] The slow firing makes possible the incorporation of glass beads for features such as eyes and mouth. 4 The second category stated by Jolles (1994) is also explained by Carol Boram-Hays Museum (Figures 2 and 3). The patterning and colour combination of the beads on these figures resembled the regional beading style associated with the geographical location of Msinga.
Beaded figures made by women that fall under the contemporary style category were sold on the roadsides or, at times, in curio shops. It is recorded that the selling of these  and these character figurines were created for flea markets, conferences and schools.
At the time of fieldwork, the 'little travellers' that I found ranged between about 4cm to 14.5cm in height. The underlying construction of 'little travellers' entails a piece of cloth that gets twisted and filled with batting to construct a human form. This is then covered and shaped with differently coloured beads to depict a character associated with its specific beadworker. The figure is finished off with either a brooch pin or safety pin at the back. The technique of using beads to cover a filler suggests that the gongqoloza method is employed. According to Sandra Klopper (1992) and Boram-Hays (2000), this technique dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century in Zululand and Natal.
The choice of the name 'little travellers' was explained by Thomson (2019b)  Kahlo's relationship with her father and his influence on her art is a well-documented subject (Herrera 1983;Dosamantes-Beaudry 2001;Lent 2007). In the biography by Hayden Herrera (1983), Guillermo is said to have stimulated Kahlo's intellectual adventurousness, which included reading books and going to nearby parks to collect pebbles, insects and rare plants. Additionally, her role as Guillermo's assistant during photographic projects also played an influential role on Kahlo's style of portraitures, such as the tiny brush strokes which are a prominent feature in her oeuvre and a style for which she is well-known. The manner in which Guillermo retouched photographs in his projects and the stiff formality of his portraits are singled out by Herrera (1983) as some of the influences that can be seen in Kahlo's own portraits.
For the purpose of this article, and to explore self-representation in the works of Nzama, attention is paid to similar auto-biographical aspects in some works by Kahlo. In the following paintings by Kahlo, aspects of gender, class, ethnicity and national identity are presented as intrinsic to the presentation of the self. While portraiture plays a role, it is not an essential aspect and in some works, Kahlo's physical presence is absent.
However, through iconological allegory she maintains aspects of representation and identity in the work. One example is the painting, My Grandparents, My Parents and I (1936). Stylistically, the work is structured along the family tree concept in which her paternal and maternal grandparents, parents, child and foetus (both possibly Kahlo) are depicted and linked together by a red ribbon that visually resembles the umbilical cord tying the foetus to the mother. In the analysis of the work, Joann Latimer (2009:46) explains that it embodies the complexities and multiplicities of Kahlo's inheritance in terms of gender, class and ethnicity.
Another painting that addresses the subject of identity is The Two Fridas (1939)  although Nzama has creative freedom in her process, before a product can be sold at the craft hub, she consults with Thomson, who gives regular feedback on a product.
The feedback includes comments on the quality of the work as well as the combination of colours, amongst other things.
The images of Frida were started when I began fieldwork in February 2019. These images were printed out by Thomson, and Nzama also downloaded and saved a few on her cellular phone device. There is a level of heterogeneity in the creative process that sees the involvement of the customer in idea suggestion, Thomson relaying and generating the idea, and together with Nzama, executing and creating the customer-suggested idea.
At the creative inception of the Kahlo 'little traveller' design, Thomson, who is a trained artist, introduced the grid technique which is widely used in fine art and graphic design. adopts what is called a "basket approach". The impetus for establishing this approach was based on the reality that attaining orders on a monthly basis is unguaranteed. Using this approach, the beadworkers continue to generate an income by producing stock for these different stores when there are minimal customer orders. Used as a way to impart ownership of a product, the "basket approach" means that each beadworker is responsible for a particular design in the store and this is regarded an internal intellectual property.
The "baskets" may be literally filled with 'little travellers', which are actually presented in a basket, or this can be a conceptual notion in instances where the products are presented on a rail. Thompson (2019) explained: 'When a crafter makes something that is new, they have ownership of that design, so they will be responsible for the production of that item'. Bafana soccer players. Therefore, the evolution of the Frida 'little travellers' series means that these products have been added to Nzama's "basket" and are a unique example of her proliferating artistry.
According to Blakewell (1993:171), the consideration of Kahlo and her self-portraits are understood as Kahlo offering viewers of her work a small window into her world. This implies how the life and works of Kahlo contribute to our understanding of contemporary construction of self (Blakewell 1993:167). Pankl and Blake (2012:1) and Aragón (2015:520) examine the geographical and historical context of Kahlo, stating that the Fridamania, Fridolatry or Kahloism, which are terms that speak to how during the 1990s onwards (even from 1980s to some extent) she has been incorporated as a subject in fashion, film, feminist discourse and art, 'continues to multiply at an astonishing pace in the current milieu'. Although Nzama uses Kahlo as a subject, she also uses herself and those around her as subjects. This self-referential process is undoubtedly evident in earlier works of Nzama, which similarly invite viewers to her world through her own construction of self. In these archived 'little travellers', Nzama's earlier work was also included, and when asked about the process of creating them, she explained that she was involved in a product development project that included using cameras to capture subjects as inspiration that would eventually be created into 'little travellers' (Figure 15). The first of three depictions that were discovered in the archives was a figure of a young woman wearing an orange dress, accessorised with an orange and black bag, orange hairband and black shoes.
This was Nzama's daughter. Nzama (2019b)  In an earlier interview, Nzama (2019a) explained the reason that she joined Woza Moya: I had a problem when I joined. My child was sick and the child needed help and I did not know what was wrong with her. So, I went to a certain person in Nchanga who is also a community helper as you find here. The woman could not help with giving me huge orders but thought the help she could give was to write me a letter to bring here at Woza Moya which I did. When I got here, because my The 'little travellers' found in archives. Photo: K. Mchunu.

FIGURE N o 14
Number 34, 2020 ISSN 2617-3255 child needed to be watched all the time and I couldn't be here all the time, before making beadwork I started with selling second-hand clothing.
The daughter depicted in the orange dress was the reason that Nzama went to the HACT and eventually joined Woza Moya as a bead artist. While initially in an ill state, Nzama depicted her daughter in a healthy state as a 'little traveller'. When considering the purpose of the camera project, which was to capture meaningful subjects as inspiration for works, with the inclusion and subsequent depiction of her daughter as she did, it is interpreted that the relationship Nzama shares with her daughter is an important and meaningful one.
Additionally, during the same interview, she also mentioned a missing 'little traveller', which was the depiction of her sons in his karate training gear. She explained that she photographed her two sons and those of her neighbours in their karate gear. Nzama Mchunu.

FIGURE N o 15
of self -is an inscription of Nzama the bead artist as mother. The relationship of mother and child also features in the works of Kahlo, such as Henry Ford Hospital (1932a) and My Birth (1932b). While Kahlo's tone in these works is understandably sombre as it deals with a miscarriage -something she had to deal with on multiple occasions -Nzama's tone leans more towards a brighter and hopeful message. Through the 'little travellers', she replaces illness with health, as explained with the 'little traveller' of her daughter.
Nzama also settles for an activity she regards as healthy for her son and for the rest of her community.
A second 'little traveller' found in the archived work was a woman in church uniform attire in the orange dress, she also wore a hairband in black, red and gold beads. This, as the bead artist revealed, was a depiction of herself donning her fancier and favourite attire at the time; it was an important attire and described as something of a confidence booster.
This outfit was described in these terms, since whenever she wore it, people would praise her on how good she looked. Moreover, she mentioned that this outfit still exists, however, does not fit her as well as it did before. As a result, it has now been passed down to her daughter, the one depicted in the orange attire.
While these were depicted as once experimental 'little travellers', the inclusion of clothing and what they mean to Nzama is paralleled with the Tehauna dress and the meaning it held for Kahlo. Dress as a sign of self is a point made by Aragón (2015:522)

Conclusion
In this article, the Woza style was presented as a contemporary form of beadwork, established as a way to address a 'wicked problem' through implementing a holistic, family-centric and asset-based approach to hospice and palliative health care. This There is a large number of individuals responsible for creating 'little travellers' at Woza Moya, but the focus of this article centred on Busisiwe Nzama, whose signature style uses images of popular figures such as Siya Kolisi, Hulk, Superman and Superwoman.
However, one of her most popular source characters, Frida Kahlo, invited an association and comparison of the work and life of the Mexican artist with that of the bead artist.
Through selected portraiture, Kahlo is shown to present herself and her multi-layered ethnicity, but also the relationship she shares with family and friends. Likewise, Nzama's archived work demonstrates her own relationship with her children and other layers of herself. Her ways of representing self showed some building blocks of Hudson-Weems' (1998) concept of womanism in which the bead artist emerges and is seen as a woman, as a mother, as a spiritual being and as a nurturer. Though this was one example of the Woza Moya bead artist, the works by other creators of 'little travellers' offer and may expand art and design discourse by renewing ways in which figuremaking can be understood as a tool through which a community talks about itself in this part of contemporary South Africa.

Notes
1. An asset-based approach uses the capabilities, abilities, gifts, skills and social resources of the people and the community for community development endeavours (Myende & Chikoko 2014:251).
2. Although it was started to assist income generation for those who sought healthcare, contemporarily, Woza Moya is open to every individual who seeks to earn an income through the sales of arts and craft. Further to this, while the name of the organisation suggests the illness as HIV, it is not limited to providing hospice and palliative care only to those who are HIV-positive.
3. In previous studies on dollmaking, the title given to individuals from arts and craft centres, like that given to Thomson, and the role that they play in product development is that of a 'culture broker' (Preston-Whyte 1991;Jolles 1994). Drawn from the work of Bennetta Jules-Rosette (1984), amongst the many roles given to the culture broker is 'transforming traditional craft skills to meet new circumstances, particularly to meet the expectations of both the art world and the tourist trade' (Preston-Whyte 1991:75).
Since Woza Moya was started as a community-led and community-centric project of the HACT with an identified social change intent, the phrase 'co-creative partnership' is more befitting for this article (Mulder 2018