peterIN an early instalment, we alluded to the reasons why Old Bulawayo was chosen ahead of Mhlahlandlela for development as a theme park. Old Bulawayo was viewed as presenting a more varied cultural diversity in comparison to Mhlahlandlela that served as the capital town in the earlier period when Mzilikazi was King.
In the case of the latter, there were fewer resident white traders in particular. There was only one mission station, the one at Inyathi close to the royal town of Emhlangeni.
By 1870 when King Lobengula built Gibixhegu following his ascending the royal seat which was later renamed KoBulawayo, the resident white population around the capital town had increased markedly. This was in addition to the whites at Inyathi and Hope Fountain mission stations of the London Missionary Society (LMS). In addition to the two mission stations, yet another mission station had come into existence very close to the capital to by Fathers Croonenbergh and Depelchin.
Western influences began to be felt in several ways. However, for the purposes of this article we shall confine ourselves to architecture that is regarded as one of several arts genres. Art is expressive culture that, in its rendition, captures some aspects of a community’s culture.
From an art form, we are able to glean a community’s thought and cosmology, ideas relating to aesthetics and design, history, architectural traditions, available building materials, available technology and the various functionalities and utilities that are fulfilled by the built structures, and created artefacts, inter alia.
The Westerners brought their own ideas from home that they applied when they settled within the Ndebele state. At Old Bulawayo, their influenced began to be felt particularly when it came to architecture. What became clear regarding the new ideas was that it was the King who was quick to adopt the new ways.
However, when it came to traditional rituals and cultural practices, he resorted to old ways particularly with regard to the dress.
Most conspicuous when it came to western ways were the two buildings belonging to the King. One of the two was a storeroom where a litany of the King’s possession was kept. Both housing structures were larger than his own royal beehive hut. The two were located within the royal enclosure not very far from his royal bee-hive hut, iqhugwana.
The two structures differed in terms of both materials used in construction and in terms of design. Soon after coronation, King Lobengula and his royal entourage had the opportunity to visit the nearby LMS mission station known as Hope Fountain (Emthombothemba). At the time of the establishment of the mission station, the missionaries and their aides obtained water from a perennial fountain.
It was during that visit when the King witnessed housing structures that were made from fired clay bricks. The King fell in love with the houses and would later request a builder, one Halyet, to construct similar structures for him within the royal enclosure. Indeed, the two structures were constructed and would soon become the most conspicuous structures within the royal enclosure.
In addition to the two houses, there was an ox-wagon shed. The King possessed ox-wagons as forms of transport. He bought the ox-wagons from white traders, and some of them were royal inheritance. An ox- wagon shed similar to the two houses in terms of architecture was built where they were housed.
The new structures would influence Ndebele ideas regarding improved architecture. In some rural areas, to this day fired clay bricks are used in the construction of sleeping houses. The kitchen huts have, in some cases, retained the traditional architecture especially with regard to design. They are still circular in design whereas the “modern” sleeping houses are rectangular.
Old Bulawayo was thus one of the early settlements to have western buildings.
The fired bricks were used to build the wall sub-structure. Clay was in use in constructing walls of Ndebele huts. However, the clay was not fired. The idea of moulding and firing bricks was a new innovation that was adopted particularly after colonisation and it soon became a marker of sophistication and civilisation.
The rectangular design was also adopted with the characteristic 90- degree angles. However, in terms of roofing materials, there was no immediate departure from what the Ndebele knew and practiced. Wood and grass were used.
It was only much later when, at the new KoBulawayo, iron sheets were introduced. The nearby new white settlement came to be referred to as Emazengeni, the locative form for the Ndebele word for iron sheets.
The ox-wagon shed displayed a similar construction, a grass and wood superstructure over a red brick wall. Architectural changes were setting in and the process was set to accelerate after colonisation. The individuals who attended mission schools and others who received western education in particular, adopted the changes.
That way, architecture became a marker of westernisation, relatively higher levels of attained Western education and the concomitant levels of western wealth.
The kind of western architecture became evident in rural areas where there was a presence of mission stations. The heaped roofs were close to the mission stations and other modern institutions such as Tsholotsho (Mavela) Industrial Government School.
The roofs were markers of the new architecture and were different from the cone-on-cylinder huts whose design was typically African-displaying circularity in terms of both the walls and roofs. Several houses in Tsholotsho were influenced by the architecture that was introduced at Mavela.
Inyathi and Hope Fountain were key institutions that influenced adoption of the exotic architecture that had already made its mark at Old Bulawayo in the pre-colonial period. Soon, the circular layout would find itself being replaced by rectangular wooden palisades that in turn was replaced by a barbed wire and later replacements including precast walls.
There were other western introductions. One notable one was the three-legged pot that began to replace the large clay pots in which meat was cooked. The three-legged pot, ibhodo, as it was/is called, has been holding out to this day.
During big gatherings, it is used for cooking. Falkirk was the trademark for these pots of varying sizes that were adopted long before colonisation. During Imfazo II of 1896, the legs were detached and used as ammunition fired from rifles with deadly effect.
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