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Pathisa Nyathi
HOPEFULLY, we have exposed the Zimbabwe Bird for both what it is and what it is not. Before we take a joyride on the ambivalent avian species, let us observe and seek some interpretation of beads on one of the Zimbabwe Birds specimens. For starters, we did point out that in ancient times when central and southern Africa was engaged in coastal trade with the Moors and later the Portuguese, glass beads assumed some pride of place among African communities. Before we deal with utilities associated with beads, we do know that they were used as gifts for those being congratulated for attaining an important stage within the context of rites of passage. This was the case when a baby was born, when one attained puberty and associated initiation rites and when couples got married.
The social value of traded glass beads was high then, hence their being referred to as chuma/ tjuma (riches) in Shona and Tjikalanga respectively. Later, glass beads were replaced, among high class members of a community, by gold beads. Royal burials in Zimbabwe type settlements were associated with gold beads as was the case at Mapungubwe at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers.
This was taken to a point where Chuma (Gwai/sheep) people began acquiring golide (word for gold in iSiNdebele) as part of their family praises. While at royal level it was kings and queens who were associated more with beads, among ordinary people it was women who possessed and used glass beads more.
One of the Zimbabwe Birds donned two strings of glass beads below its neck, just where the wings began. The significance of the presence of beads lies in that birds are not, as a general rule, associated with birds. Rather, beads, be they glass, golden or fashioned out of eggshells or clay, they are associated with human beings. The presence of beads on a Zimbabwe Bird could, after all, be a pointer to the bird that, in actual fact, represents and symbolises human being(s). When it comes to fashion and aesthetics in general, women fair better than men. This has been the case from long ago and remains so to this day. Women were pictured with large quantities of multi-coloured beads on their necks, brows, elbows, wrists, waists, knees and ankles. Beads add to their beauty. In this regard, human beings are not alone. Many species of fauna, female ones, are beautifully and brilliantly coloured so as to attract their opposites. There are of course cases when it is males that are beautifully and delightfully coloured to attract female opposites. This is the case particularly among birds such as peacocks.
Let us now try to relate glass beads to the Zimbabwe Bird and Great Zimbabwe. What has emerged so far as the overarching theme at Great Zimbabwe’s Great Enclosure is fertility or sexuality. Initiation, accompanied by puberty rites, is an integral part of the Great Enclosure. Trade with the East Coast did introduce beads to Great Zimbabwe. After successfully completing circumcision initiates would have been congratulated with various gifts including glass beads. For women, glass beads performed a dual function; utility and aesthetics as is the case generally with many items or crafts in African communities. The aesthetic component has already been alluded to above. Naturally, women want to look their best. They love fashion more than men.
Now we turn to the utility aspect. We have pointed out time and time again that art for art’s sake was not the practice among African communities. Indeed, one of the African continent’s most celebrated writers Chinua Achebe, once said, “Art for art’s sake is like deodorised dog shit.” African art came buoyed on utility items. A wall was first and foremost meant to provide privacy and keep out elements, among other utilities. In Africa women worked the soil or clay. Once provided with a wall surface, African women seized the opportunity to design and execute decorations on walls. The decorations were imbued with aesthetic attributes as understood by Africans.
The designs appealed to the eye. They were visually consumed. At the same time, decorative motifs or designs carried profound meanings and significance. It thus turned out that undecorated walls, by virtue of being circular, embraced elements of aesthetics. Both aesthetics and utility were embedded on a wall.
Similarly, decorations bore two elements; aesthetics primarily, and functionality secondarily. Aesthetics is pretty easy to see and appreciate. However, what is not that easy to see and appreciate is functionality or utility within aesthetics. Behind aesthetics there are fundamental African messages and meanings that are brought to the fore by decorative icons, motifs, symbols and patterns. There is thus some complementary duality both on the wall and decorations alike. Decorations thus communicate certain messages and express, in a subtle artistic way, certain information and knowledge. Art communicates effortlessly.
Enough about the aesthetic role of beads. What utility did they serve, particularly among womenfolk? Women then, and some of them to this day, do wear beads on their waists. With Western dress being worn these days, such beads may not be visible to people’s eyes. That alone will testify to the fact that such beads were/ are not worn for aesthetics. Visual aesthetic consumption makes use of eyes. There must have been, therefore, some functionality behind them: sexual enticement! The sexual act was not just a physical process to be stoically endured. There was spirituality, aesthetics and sheer joy, ecstasy, bliss and rapture to it. One man I interviewed many years ago said, “A woman (a man is having sex with) should not be like a smooth tree trunk, ugodo lomkhaya.” Beads, particularly the large and coarse ones, have a caressing effect on men — something they enjoy and women knew that and fed men on their preferred erotic diet.
It will not therefore, come as a surprise that the Zimbabwe Bird was donned with two strips of beads. The Zimbabwe Bird bears some female elements and it is what the elements represent and express — femininity which is associated with beads and their related functionality. Once again, this interpretation is in line with the overarching theme, namely sexuality or fertility. This is critically important to appreciate as there cannot be serious contradictions within the same cultural edifice. When that does happen, chances are that our interpretation is off the mark. We just have missed it. So far at the Great Enclosure, we have encountered complementing messages all revolving around one theme, expressed from granite stone walls to soapstone Zimbabwe Birds.
We are quite alert to pronouncements by some people that Africans were not knowledgeable in family control measures. This does not come as a surprise given the fact that Africans have come to believe that their ancestors were good at nothing. This is demonstrative of the extent to which some Africans have denigrated and despised their ancestors. Certainly, African women knew and there are some that still do, how to prevent pregnancy following sexual intercourse. Such medication was not orally administered nor was it intravenously introduced.
Certain known plants had their parts added among the beads worn around the waist. It was these contraceptive plants that prevented conception. It may sound as hogwash if not some abracadabra or some hocus-pocus as everything African is open to ridicule even by Africans themselves who prefer what they sheepishly term Western science. There are many who try to see science in African phenomena. There are others who do not even think the search for it is worth their while. It’s all myth and superstition!
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