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[SANS] More of Marjorie Russell

Sorry, I have been rather busy, so haven't been able to do much of this
lately.

Uses as a fibre in other parts of Africa as a rural craft

To the Bushmen of SW Africa (Namibia) carrying nets, snares and bows play a
very important role. For their manufacture these nomadic hunters need rope,
which is made from the fibre of the leaves of S. aethiopica which the !Khu
Bushman call !hwi. Objects that are needed for this process are a knife, a
digging stick and a sandal. In the preparation of the rope, the leaf of the
Sansevieria is first divided into 4 parts. the right hand and the foot hold
the sharp point of the stick in position on the sandal, while the leaf is
pulled through under the point of the stick with the left hand. This is
continued until only the fibre is left in the hand. the still damp fibre is
then rolled on the thigh into strings which may vary in thickness according
to the purpose for which they are used; thick rope is made from thicker
strings. The finished rope is then rolled into a ball. These nomadic people
use the carrying nets to transport their possessions, during hunting trips,
or when moving. Rope is also used for snares of different sorts and
sometimes for bowstrings.

In the 1909 Kew Bulletin it was reported that the Kube tribe of the
northern districts of Bechuanaland (Botswana) used Sansevieria for making
fish nets. In 1972 I received some printed information of "Ngamiland and
Northern Botswana". In the Okavanga swamps area the baGeereku still make
nets woven from the Sansevieria. AC Hollis in "the Masai and their language
and folk lore" writes of the use of Sansevieria for ropes. In the "Bulletin
Agricole du Congo Belge" (now Zaire) of 1951 it was reported that "Fibres
of Sansevieria are not used by whites or Africans because the length of the
fibres rarely exceeds 40-50 cm".
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