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Lexicon Matjieshuis _____________________________________________________ Rush-mat House [After Walton 1956:21-22; Walton in. SESA Vol 1:534; Ferreira 1986:70-76]. The nomadic clans of the Khoekhoen were pastoralists and practiced a transhumant culture. Their material culture was thus adapted to this mode of existence which made it essential for them to have huts which were light, portable and capable of being erected and dismantled easily. Matjiesgoed (Cyperis textilis), the preferred softer reed which grows in vleis and rivers, provides the culms from which the mats are made, hence the Dutch/Afrikaans vernacular name meaning ‘matting material’. The cordage made from these culms is thus matjiestou. (The Namibian Nama use the gras Aristide sabulicola for their matting, hence its vernacular name matjiesgras). When mature, the culms are plucked individually, placed into hand-sized bundles and allowed to dry over some months until they turn a golden-brown. Once thoroughly dried they are soaked overnight in a trough of water. Thereafter the crown and seed-heads are removed with an axe, and the stems carefully sorted by length. Then begins the stitching (‘steek’) of the mats. This is a skilled process, where the culms are arranged oppositionally so as to keep the weave even. Traditionally the thread would have been from plant fibre, the bark of the sweet-thorn stripped off in lengths then beaten and chewed to separate the fibres, but where these are still made the threads of sacking are drawn from the weave and used instead. While the mat was being made it was kept damp with a cover overnight. The ends of the completed mats are trimmed to an even length and several strands of strong twine woven tightly in clustered stems to ensure the structural integrity of the mat. The staves may be of a variety of flexible timber trees but that of the ‘rosyntjiebos’, Grewia flava, was the preferred source. The green harvested staves were sprung, usually by prestressing them with a suspended heay stone or tying them into shape, to form the requisite bow while drying. A hut consisted of from twenty to sixty undressed sapling staves which were placed vertically in holes dug in the ground in the form of a circle of 3,0m to 4,5m in diameter. The ends of the saplings were bend inwards of the circle and tied together in the centre to make a hemispherical framework which was strengthened with withes (flexible slender woody shoots), a task usually performed by the men. The framework was covered with rush mats, starting from the bottomand overlaying them sequentially across the curve of the frame, which were then pierced and sewn with bark thread back to the staves, a task as well as the prior weaving of mats usually performed by the women. The longer mats were placed edgewise on the ground and tied to the saplings. Other mats overlapped this lower circle in successive layers to form a beehive-shaped hut which was quite watertight in the rainy season when the rushes became swollen, and cool and airy in the heat of summer, the more prevalent condition in the hot karoo and kalagadi. The hut had an opening, facing the centre of the 'werf', which provided an entrance. This was easily closed off by a piece of rush matting fastened to a cross pole about 1m above the ground. The interior furnishings were meagre, as befitted a nomadic people who had to transport all their possessions on the backs of oxen. A slight depression in the centre of the floor served as a hearth, around which the family slept on hides or skins. To the rear of the hut was a framework of four poles supporting a net on and under which the family belongings were stored, although the pots and bamboo vessels were normally suspended from forked poles stuck in the ground outside the hut. Formerly the huts of an important chief's encampment were arranged in a large circle, facing a central open space and surrounded by a great thorn fence with two gateways, one on the north and one on the south side. The huts of the chief and members of his clan were sited in the western part of the circle and on each side, in strict order of merit, were the other clans, each grouped together in separate communities. The extensive central clearing served to fold the stock at night and within it were separate kraals for the calves and lambs (Walton 1953:22). No records appear to have survived of the camping order of the various clans but a specific order within the family group continued. The huts of the oldest brother, with his wife, children and dependents, were placed on the extreme right of the settlement and those of the other brothers and their families. in order of seniority to the left, as one stands in the entrance of a hut facing outwards. The huts of the married sons of each brother were situated to the right of their father's huts, the oldest furthest away and the youngest nearest to his father. Married daughters, who had not yet left the parents' werf, widowed sisters, servants and other dependents were housed to the left of the principal huts (Walton 1953:22) When Van Riebeeck arrived in Table Bay he records in his diary that there were perhaps five-hundred such huts in the Khoehhoe encampment, so full of cattle that it could, with difficulty, be circled in a half-an-hour (in Walton 1953:19). The white pioneer Namaqualand settlers adopted this technology for their veld structures, as described by Ferreira (1986:70-76). Similar hut frameworks are still erected by Khoekhoen descendants in Namaqualand, particularly at the once mission stations, and are called 'matjies huise' after the rush matting which covered the frame, though today pieces of sacking, tarpaulin, felt or plastic sheeting usually replace the mats. (Smith 1966:333 for nomenclature, also Frescura and Myeza 2016:102 ill, 114 ill, 115 'Matjieshuis', 119 'Matting'). Books linked to this entry Frescura, Franco & Myeza, Joyce . 2017. Illustrated glossary of southern African architectural terms; English-isiZulu. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press pp 102 ill, 114 ill, 115, 119 Potgieter, DJ (Editor-in-chief). 1970. Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa [SESA] Volume 1 Aan-Bac. Cape Town: Nasou pp 534, 535 ill Smith, Christo Albertyn, Phillips, Edwin Percy (Editor) & Van Hoepen, Estelle (Editor) . 1966. Common names of South African plants (Botanical Survey Memoir No. 35). Pretoria: Department of Agricultural Technical Services. Botanical Research Institute pp 333 Van der Waal-Braaksma, G & Fereirra, OJO . 1986. Die Noordweste. Die stoflike kultuuruitinge van die streek se bewoners. Johannesburg: Genootskap vir Afrikaanse Volkskunde pp 70-76 Walton, James. 1956. African village. Pretoria: JL van Schaik pp 21-22