African Embroidery: The Rejected Wife

On January 15 and 16 I wrote about the African embroideries I had received from Ina le Roux who is working with a group of Venda women in South Africa. Ina has taught the women to embroider and now they can sell their work and have funds to support their families.

This design is called "The Rejected Wife" and was created by Sani.

I added a simple border of African-style fabrics to the embroidery to create this little wall hanging.

Each embroidery comes with the complete Venda folk tale and a picture and story of the embroiderer. I added a fabric pocket on the back to hold this information.

"The Rejected Wife" is the story of a woman who was sent away by her husband and his second wife because she had 5 sons. The husband knew the sons would marry and leave his farm and would not be of any use to him. The wife started her own farm with the help of her sons and soon had a more profitable farm than her husband. Although the husband tried to win her back again, the first wife just said "Phfutseke" , a Venda word which means "Get Lost!".