adminIN everything created, living or non-living, there is the signature of the creator. In every created object therefore, there is a hierarchy of signatures or identities. In the first instance there is the signature of the wider community whose artistic traditions are embedded or infused into the created object. Secondly, the object bears the identity of the particular creator, artist or craftsperson.
A creator or artist is equipped with the artistic traditions, cultural identities and traits of the community of which he/she is a member. Whatever he/she creates is in line with the cultural dictates and parameters of the wider community. At the same time, the creator or artist possesses individual creative talents and uniqueness which are exceptional to him/her. This is the basis for the duality of identities in everything created.
The object is located within the artistic traditions of the community but also within the particular artistic realm of the individual creator. Ceramic typologies that archaeologists make use of in their studies are rooted and premised on this understanding. A particular community resides in its artefacts and the artefacts equally reside within their communities.
My recent involvement with My Beautiful Home Project — Comba Indlu Ngobuciko — did help shape and elucidate my understanding and appreciation of individual and community identities and signatures. Our area of focus was the painting of huts using traditional dyes, an artistic tradition that is apparently on the decline following recent architectural traditions introduced into the area after colonisation.
Our project covered two wards, namely 16 and 17 within the northern part of Matobo District. Whereas the community speaks isiNdebele, the existing architectural traditions point in a different direction. Indeed, this does not come as a surprise. The BaNyubi community had occupied the Matobo Hills for a very long time, certainly before the arrival of the Nguni/Ndebele in about 1839.
Deep below the language veneer lies enduring identities which place the community within the broader context of the generic BaKalanga. History tells us the community arrived in the Matobo Hills from Great Zimbabwe prior to its demise. There are aspects of culture that quickly succumb to invasive cultures and other aspects that endure the cultural onslaught.
The interior walls of the huts, we observed, are fitted with shelves where the women place plates and cups and other items of cutlery. The exquisitely executed shelves bear circles and chevrons in their design. The ubiquity of the two decorative motifs did not come as a surprise at all. Even the San who occupied the same cultural landscape thousands of years earlier decorated their meagre artefacts with the same designs. The later arrivals, namely the Ndebele or Nguni, also continued with the same artistic designs.
However, the Nguni did not construct shelves in their huts. This does not come as a surprise, given that they initially had no huts with surfaces that landed themselves to pigment embellishment. The bee-hive huts precluded the possibility of posting artistic expressions their surfaces. Cultural exchange was a mutual two-way process. The incoming Nguni people absorbed certain elements of the indigenous culture. At the same time the BaNyubi were also adopting some elements of the incoming Nguni culture, notably the isiNdebele language.
In earlier articles we dealt with the construction and appearance of a hut roof. In this installment our focus is on the hearth found in the kitchen hut. We are, however, still dealing with the kitchen hut with particular reference to the Nguni as distinct from the BaNyubi and their architectural designs.
Our starting point is the verb — zika, meaning deep or deepen. A kitchen hut was provided with a central hearth where cooking fire was ignited. The central location of the hearth, iziko (the noun derived from the verb stem — zika) differs with that of ethnic groups in the south-western part of Africa where the hearth is located next to the wall. Compare this with the location of a fireplace in Western architecture.
The hearth comes in the form of a shallow depression within which are lodged three hearth stones. The stones must be of a type that will not easily crack and shatter under stresses caused by alternating expansion and contraction. The dark coloured hard dolerite rock is preferred for that reason. A cooking pot is placed above the three stones. There does seem to be some significance relating to the number in African cosmology. In quite many African rituals the number three frequently pops up. The trinity, be it holy or unholy, is certainly part of the African worldview.
The size of a hearth in the kitchen hut is much bigger than that in the sleeping hut, isihayisi. In the latter no fire is made. Instead, hot embers, amalahle are brought into the sleeping hut in a potsherd, udengezi merely to warm up the interior of the hut. Function thus determined the size. The kitchen hut on the other hand has a larger hearth which is equipped with three hearth stones as pointed out above.
The use of hearth stones must have been a milestone innovation. Initially, the pot was placed directly on the fire. That had a tendency of dousing the flames with the result that higher temperatures were not achieved due to lack of circulation of air. The incorporation of stones, with the effect of creating space between the fire and the bottom of the pot allowed for air draughts which enhanced combustion. As a result higher temperatures were attained.
Thus iziko the hearth carries three stones, a cooking pot and firewood which is burning. This is where African, or to be more specific Ndebele, symbolism comes in. The hearth with its burning wooden logs invokes sexual images among the Africans. Sexuality is perceived as guaranteeing the continuity of the human species. Products of the sexual act, babies that is, must be nourished and protected till they too participate in the sexual process that will ensure the continuity of the blood line.
The hearth is where food is cooked. It is food that ensures sustenance, a sine qua non for human perpetuity, continuity and eternity. At the level of humans it is the marriage institution within which the blood line is perpetuated. The matrimonial arrangement is a social crafting created to achieve that end. There is thus some very useful complementarity between sustenance as provided by the hearth (cooking of food) and the marriage institution and its attendant sexual act. Both are critical for the continuation of the blood line.
Women, Africa recognised, are critical for the perpetuation of the human race. We have in the past alluded to the ubiquitous chevron motif that is inspired by the body of woman. Can you now see how the Ndebele connected the shallow depression called the hearth and the anatomy of woman? If you have not, do recall the Ndebele expression for sending an emissary, umkhongi to seek the hand of some maiden in marriage, uyacela umlilo!
In a nutshell, the hearth, iziko symbolises a female reproductive organ. When the fire is raging — that, among the Ndebele, is an expression of sexual activity within the marriage institution. The symbolic link between the fire in the hearth and the sexual act should now be apparent.
In the next article we shall make use of Ndebele marriage-related terminologies to further demonstrate their perceptions and conceptualisation of the hearth and its symbolic link with sexuality.
Online Reporter