By Wezi Tjaronda WINDHOEK Although his energy appears to be waning, Rupati Hange at the age of 88 still puts his talents to full use. At this advanced age, when many chose to sit around and be provided for, this old man remains the main provider for his household by making saddles and wood and leather products. Good eyesight is a prerequisite for his trade but Hange, popularly known as Hija Musore, has failing sight but he still works. He started making saddles at 38 and he still makes them for 50 years now. “For half a century I have been making saddles, chairs, butts for guns and other wooden products like mahoro and spoons,” he says while reclining on one of the chairs he made. A few other men in Otjmati village in Epukiro Constituency whose mainstay is cattle farming, have turned their hobbies into business ventures to supplement their incomes. The other two, Michael Mateus and Phillip Kauta Tjaronda, have defied common beliefs in the area, that once one has cattle, their livelihood is secure. With droughts, diseases and cattle thefts that can decrease one’s herd and affect one’s income, these three men feel there is a place for other trades even though the local economy revolves around livestock. One thing is common among the three: they all work with their hands on work that could be easier made by machines. The other most striking feature about their work is that their products are well-known and some people come from far away to purchase their products but they have still failed to find successors. Estimates are that out of more than 3700 youths in the constituency, more than half are without a source of income. Mateus, a settler in the constituency, started making bricks way back in 1992. At the time, he wanted to build a house but had no money to buy cement and make bricks, which led him to make a tour of the area. About a kilometre from his home, he discovered a limestone belt, and he started making bricks from that stone. The place is called Ongoporo, an Otjiherero name for mine. The stretch on which Mateus has worked and the heaps of rejects that he has left behind is enough to scare the wits out of many that have visited the so-called mine. Tjaronda started weaving chairs and stretchers or camp beds with hand strapping since five years ago. What started out of curiosity has earned him a name among many Otjiherero-speaking people. His business, Ndjapenduka Rukuru Ndjatora Etiva (The early bird catches the worm) started when Tjaronda saw a chair that was made with hand strapping in Windhoek. That was enough to stir up the business idea to make chairs and sell them. Maybe, except for Hija Musore, who is so advanced in his age that his children have taken over the business instead of looking after the livestock, the other two, Mateus and Tjaronda juggle between the many different roles of managing their livestock and doing many other chores in their homes and also concentrating on their businesses. They both feel that had it not been for their other responsibilities and the lack of modern machines, their businesses could have been more advanced by now. Despite today’s advancements in technology, Tjaronda makes the frames for chairs by bending round tubing by hand and makes holes in the round tubing by punching them with a hammer and punch. Mateus, on the other hand, armed with a pick, physically digs for the limestone. A number of machines like hydraulics, a generator, drilling machines, a spray gun and a compressor could not only have eased Tjaronda’s work, but also make him more efficient. “But these machines are expensive and without financial support I cannot buy them on my own,” he said. With his traditional method of digging for limestone, Mateus makes about 30 bricks a day, but with masks and goggles to protect his eyes, a driller and a chiseller he would make many more bricks. Although his pace is fast enough for the type of clientele he has at present, Mateus would need equipment to make more bricks if he were to tender for a big public project such as a clinic or a school. His bricks are sought after in many areas, including, amongst many others, Otjombinde and the Eiseb block for building houses, toilets, shops and water reservoirs. Although such talent, if it were used for projects for the whole village, would help many find their way out of poverty, a visit to the three men’s households is a vivid explanation for why there is no interest in their work. Mateus started digging the stones for bricks with some 12 people who dropped out one by one because they could not cope. “People are afraid because they say that it is hard work,” said Mateus, adding that they say: “This is the work of the Ovambos.” He has gone to the extent of motivating young people to organise themselves into a project and to try and get assistance for buying machinery – but all this has fallen on deaf ears. Ironically, one young woman, tired of staying in the same house with her parents has joined Mateus to make bricks for her own dwelling unit. “Except for that young woman who has made 125 bricks, the rest say this is work for the Ovambo speakers,” he said, laughing at the idea. To get so far where most of the money he makes is spent on the needs of his family such as paying school-related expenses and maintaining his herd of cattle, Mateus has parted ways with things that occupy many people in villages such as attending every wedding that comes, abusing alcohol and playing onjune. As if the three men were talking from the same platform, they did not have kind words for the Otjimati youth. “Young people tell you they are into livestock farming and cannot do other things like making saddles, weaving chairs and digging bricks, but livestock has its own risks,” Mathias added. For Hija Musore it is more painful because his own children, whom he thought would take over making saddles, have shown no interest so far. “I wake up early and spend my days doing things that the Lord gave me until late when I cannot see any more. “But none of my kids sit with me to learn or to help me,” he adds sadly. By the look of things, Tjaronda has the same problems because while he makes his products, he is alone. The youth is not interested, he said. Tjaronda this year wants to grow his business by having a proper workshop and an assistant who can do the work when he is busy with other things and also go to a number of trade fairs to exhibit his products as a way of increasing his clientele. When he finds machinery, he wants to make frames and supply to D’Kar in Botswana where the San community have a project for making chairs with leather. Finances permitting, Mateus wants to dig his bricks and cast them at his house, slightly more than a kilometre away where he can also attend to other pressing matters. These three men are currently looking for young people that are interested in learning their trades so that when they meet their maker some day, there will still be people that can make saddles the way Hija Musore used to make them, weave chairs and stretchers like those of Tjaronda and still be able to find bricks that Mateus used to make.