Wild routes
Andile Mndende is a proud and enthusiastic young Xhosa man. Good-looking and articulate, his passion for his culture is infectious. When I met him at the Icamagu Heritage Institute outside Dutywa, he was wearing a striking black-and-red breastplate, made of thousands of tiny beads.
I’d seen beaded Xhosa bracelets, necklaces, headbands and even knobkerries (walking sticks) before, but never such an elaborate ephod. Complimenting his garment, I asked Andile where he got it. Grinning with a smile that wouldn’t be out of place on Netflix, he said: ‘I made it.’
His breastplate prompted a recollection of playing with my mother’s beads on the carpeted bedroom floor as a young child. I’d run my fingers over the surface of
