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Friday Lessons With Sir Mwanyisa
GREETINGS learners, parents and guardians! Welcome to your Visual and Performing Arts weekly lessons brought to you by your favourite newspaper, The Manica Post.
Learners are expected to have an exercise book and a pen to write work given as exercises.
Parents or guardians are encouraged to assist learners with special needs.
This week our topic is on Pre-colonial visual arts of Southern Africa.
We focus on the Tonga artworks.
The Tonga people are found to the north of Zimbabwe and across the Zambezi River.
Tonga baskets are baskets woven by the Tonga women of the Southern Province of Zambia, who are renowned for their basket weaving.
Media used
The baskets are made from the ilala palm (Mapokwe in Tonga), which, although growing freely, is also planted by Tonga women for the purpose of basket making.
It takes approximately two weeks to complete a basket about 35 cm in diameter.
Uses of Tonga baskets
Traditionally, the baskets were (and still are) used for carrying maize or sorghum from the fields and then winnowing the grain.
Patterning
Traditional designs include stripes, a spider web type pattern and a lightning pattern.
The additive method of making artworks is used in produce visual arts.
Entrepreneurship benefits:
Zimbabwe exports thousands of baskets a year.
The Tonga lives in an area prone to drought and poverty, and the basket making helped the women feed their families.
The opening of the Tonga Craft Centre in Binga village was meant to keep the traditional crafts alive: basket-making, drum-making, carving, pottery, and beading.
Task: Find out about media used in making baskets found in your area.
Online Reporter