Introduction

This symbol represents "customs", "traditions or "folklore", showing a cow suckling a calf under the Sun of Enlightenment.

Below, are three diamond shapes representing the three aspects of the Mother Goddess, followed by the symbol for water representing progress and movement.

The two triangles represent a mother's breasts.
In traditional African symbol-writing, this illustration translates as "That which we learned at our mother's breasts".

Many people think that our people in olden days were illiterate and that it is only in the 19th century that actual documentation of events was recorded by those who could write. This is not quite true as you will see in the associated pages.

There are obvious difficulties in reconstructing academically the history of pre-literate societies and even in the presence all anthropologists, historians, archaeologists, and linguists, tangible history of people in such societies is elusive.

Yet this undocumented era of our history is still significant in its own right, providing material and artistic examples of constraints and possibilities, achievements and setbacks of both pre-industrial and pre-literate societies as they established their niches in a variety of environments.

Southern Africans had for many centuries been developing social forms and cultural conditions that, colonialisation, capitalism and apartheid have assaulted, abused, modified; but never eradicated it.

Without some knowledge of traditional Africa's customs, networks and social values, the forms and traditions that molded the vigorous lives of our pre-colonial societies will never be understood. This essay of artistic material is thus offered as attribute to the bead workers and craftsmen of our forefathers, who captured the splendour of the past, and have given our present meaning.

In this we find inspiration from our tradition.

The appeal of the book seeks to understand significant historic artifacts in the context of South Africa's history and the many transformation through which various social orders have moved. The focus is on the past.

It celebrates a once vibrant tradition in which we, in these pages, hope to memorialize.

Paintings, stories and anecdotes in this book have been inspired by what is probably the oldest collection of South African artifacts in the world, many of which have been kept in London's British Museum for over 130 years. It is these relics of our past that contained our seeds, our stories. They speak of the African's history in its broad context during pre-literate years and offer an insight into the greatness of our nations yesteryear.

We dedicate this book, which could perhaps be the first of many, do not only our children, our little sums and orders, but also to their families throughout some Africa.

We are talking to you all through these pages.

These pages are reproduced from "Usiko" - Tales from Africa's Treasure Trove" by Credo Mutwa. Acknowledgements to South African Telkom who sponsored the publication