In August 1984 an exhibition Traditional Art and Craft of KwaZulu was held at the Natal Society of Arts Gallery. The collection was assembled by the African Art Centre and featured Vukani baskets, traditional pottery by Miriam Mbonambi - who has subsequently exhibited on national exhibitions and is considered one of the finest traditional potters - and Rorke's Drift ceramics by Lun-dumuso Mbaso, Euriel Mbatha, Joel Sibisi and Elizabeth Mbatha.

Wood carvings by Azmon Mzila were shown with traditional beadwork from the Msinga Reserve, which had been collected by Mpostoli Mzila for the exhibition. Bheki Myeni showed his insect carvings for the first time outside the African Art Centre. All were immediately sold.

Once again the Rorke's Drift weavers were well represented, a tapestry titled Four Years of Drought, made by Eliza Xaba, Beatrice Zwane and V Buthelezi being an outstanding piece. The bead-cloth sculptors had their first exhibition outside the African Art Centre. The exhibition was enthusiastically reviewed in the local newspapers.

An exhibition entitled Tributaries: A View of Contemporary South African Art was sponsored by BMW South Africa and held in January 1985 in the Market Theatre complex in Johannesburg. It is accepted as having been one of the most important exhibitions of contemporary South African art.

In October I 984 the talents of Peder and Ulla Gowenius - initiators of the Rorke's Drift Art Centre - were once again visible in an exhibition of Art and Craft from Botswana, which I had collected during a visit to Botswana. Featured was a fine collection of weavings from the Gowenius's Oodi Lentswa Weaving Centre.

The tapestries and weavings from Botswana were quite different in weave, colours and subject matter from those of Rorke's Drift, reflecting the ability of the Swedish couple to draw out the creative talents of people.

The exhibition was perceptively curated by Ricky Burnett, Arts Advisor to BMW South Africa, who travelled the country seeking out hitherto unknown artists. Many established artists, both black and white, exhibited alongside lesser knowns as well as traditional crafts men and women. The African Art Centre was pleased to play a part in the  exhibition by giving Burnett advice on KwaZulu-Natal artists.

Rorke's Drift consultant Malin   Lundbohm returned to South  Africa from Sweden in 1984. The purpose of her visit was to put together   an   exhibition   in   Sweden   of  Rorke's Drift weavings, ceramics and silk-screen printed fabrics, and Vukani baskets.

Accompanying her was Muriel Mbatha, who had trained as a weaver at Rorke's Drift before moving to Sweden with her husband, Azaria Mbatha.

The exhibition, organised and sponsored by the Church of Sweden Mission, was held in Uppsala and at the famous Rohaska Art Museum in Gottenberg from June to September 1985. Three representatives each from Rorke's Drift and the Vukani Association were invited to accompany the exhibition, to give talks and benefit from short course educational opportunities.

Part of the African Art Centre's contribution to the exhibition was to assemble work from former Rorke's Drift artists. Bongiwe Dhlomo's Removal Series featured among the work collected. The centre also sent 15 examples of bead-cloth sculpture by Thembi Mchunu, Kulumelaphi Mlaba, Sizakele Mchunu, Mavis Mchunu and Celani Nojiyeza, contemporary beadwork from Inanda, traditional beadwork from Msinga and examples of early telephone wire baskets. All the items were sold, indicating that they were well received by Swedish people.

In April 1986 graphie works by George Msimang, Dan Rakgoathe and Azaria Mbatha were sent to an exhibition and seminar on Black Art in South Africa organised by Alliance Française in Pretoria.

In May 1986 the Tatham Gallery in Pietermaritzburg borrowed a number of pieces for an exhibition titled Aspects of Traditional Black Art in Southern Africa. The exhibition, held around the same time as the 1985 Cape Town Triennial, served as a comparison between mainly formally trained white artists exhibiting on the Triennial and the less sophisticated but nonetheless créative artists with little or no training.

Among the new artists and crafts people who continued to find their way to the Art Centre was Enoch Mabika, a security guard at the Durban Club who brought in beautifully carved totem sticks in mtombothi wood from his home in the Ubombo area of KwaZulu-Natal. Some of the sticks were bought by the Durban Art Gallery and several hâve been acquired by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

Traditional beadwork from Msinga, on the 1985 Swedish exhibition

Mabika is a fine example of a traditional carver, as demonstrated by the craft of linking wood: an intricate process of carving interlocking links from one piece of wood. His meat platters were taken further than traditional platters by decoration with in-lay, sometimes done to overcome a crack in the wood.

The African Art Centre participated iri an international Dotls House exhibition held during an Expo Exhibition, at the restored Old Durban Station Workshop, by contributing traditionally dressed dolls. The makers came to Durban to demonstrate their craft, giving them an opportunity to be involved in a situation outside the confines of their rural lives, and to exhibit alongside typical dolls houses of European dérivation.

Later the Art Centre had another opportunity to promote the intégration of cultures and art forms through indigenous Christmas décorations. Christine Scott commented in the Natal Mercury of December 19, 1985, under the headline 'Going African':

"Traditional Christmas decorations are really equal parts ancient pagan ritual and new fangled invention - so why not create your own, local meaningful traditions?...The African Art Centre has ail the ingredients necessary for indigenous festivities - witness in thephotograph our madeup natiuity scène and celebrate the virtues of being homegrown and homemade. far better than shelling out precious rands on machine made importée goods, just out of habit."

The publicity was a welcome advertisement - a necessity with which the Press has often assisted. But it also had an element of 'conversion' about it, a desire to integrate people from différent cultures which the Centre had had since the early Institute days. However, it is likely that Christian churches - including those with entirely African congregations - continue to hâve stereotyped European Nativity scenes which, with the long missionary history, appeal more to congrégations than the African Art Centre's view of what is 'good for people'.

A marketing dream for the Art Centre was to get a free illustrated article in the glossy Cosmopolitan magazine, headed 'Chick Mate!' with colour illustrations of Celani Nojiyeza's beaded hens and chickens. The article appeared in the March edition and drew many requests for these original Easter symbols. Alas. the chickens did not hatch until well after Easter, proving once again the hazards of advertising creative crafts made by rural people who are often diverted to domestic chores.

My ultimate experience in promoting the Art Centre resulted from an invitation to sail on the QE2 from Cape Town to Durban and give a lecture, show slides and hold an exhibition. The invitation followed a visit to the Centre the previous year by Waldemar Hansen, when he was lecturer on the luxury ship the Rotterdam. Impressed with the non-curio aspect of the Centre, he proposed my invitation when he was appointed lecturer on the QE2.

In preparation for the great event, Rodney Harber spent the night at the Ngubane beadworkers home at Inanda. He took slides showing the area in which they lived, their family members, their long walk to the bus and eventual arrival at the African Art Centre with their beadwork.

Ail this was to give an authenticity to the African Art Centre. The talk and slides, showing various aspects of local art and craft, endeavoured to dispel the stereotyped belief of many tourists that ail African art is the same and consists of masks, totem pôles, drums and animais.

Waldemar Hansen had given a talk on the history of Natal and Zululand, so when the ship docked the passengers were well aware of where they were and the place to shop if they were looking for something other than curios. Beadwork and baskets were popular and genuine appreciation was shown by the passengers.