SOUTH AFRICA

TORSAI

NDEBELE

SUMMARY

CAPE TOWN

PORT ELISABETH

                                                            TORSAI

Cerca del pueblo MVEZO, en ruta de East London a Durban, en medio de una gran llanura con escasa vegetación,  y bajo un sol de plomo  encontramos a Torsai, que preparaba comida en un fogón, al exterior de su  casa, acompañada de otra mujer, un familiar. Su casa (*) era una construcción circular de un solo ambiente  con muros de adobe y  techo de paja.  Sin ventanas, solo la puerta dividida en dos hojas horizontales, permitía que entrara  la luz, por la parte superior,  mientras que la parte inferior permanecía cerrada  para qué no ingresaran los animales.

Torsai había tenido 14 hijos de  4 maridos diferentes  y su hijo mayor tenía 30 años. En la casa dormían regularmente 10 personas. La casa era nueva y hace poco habían celebrado  una reunion (tunga) con los familiares que ayudaron a terminarla. Su construcción demoró 3 años desde que comenzo a  juntar los materiales.

Las mujeres prepararon los 800  adobes que se necesitaban, mezclando tierra y paja,  este trabajo lo hacían al ritmo de la música y para explicarnos mejor fue a su casa y saco el molde que habían usado para hacer los adobes, y mientras mimaba los movimientos de este trabajo y cantaba,  la otra mujer trajo un instrumento musical, un arco de madera con una sola cuerda (Makhweyana), que sujetaba con la boca y la mano izquierda, mientras que con la derecha tocaba una  melodía  que  servía para dar el ritmo del  trabajo (isao phi).

Para el techo las mujeres  juntaron la paja, pero su elaboración era  tarea de los hombres. La duración del techo dependía de las hierbas que se utilizaran y algunos podían quedar hasta 10 años sin necesidad de ser renovados.
Mientras nos  despedíamos de Torsai, llegó  una  vecina, atraída por el bullicio, tenía la cara cubierta de arcilla blanca para protegerse del sol, y a lo lejos vimos pasar una fila de mujeres  que caminaban  con sus paraguas desplegados, también para protegerse del sol.

De regreso al Land Rover nuestro  chofer se  seguía preguntando qué interés
podía haber en pararse en medio de la ruta, para escuchar una historia así.
  
Informe y fotos: Silvia Matuk
Participantes: Claudia Wolf, Susan Krause, Verena Grips, Alex Kaluza ,Luana König, Giovanna Nardini, Esther Berkhoff, Conny Icks, Jan Glasmeier [2005].  
  
(*) Zulu cone-on-cylinder dwellings

According  to  architect  Franco  Frescura,  "This  is  possibly  the  most  universal  of South Africa's house  forms".  He  refers to what he  calls the  'cone-on-cylinder' house type.  His term is technically more correct and descriptive of what became popularly known as the 'hut' or the 'rondavel' house type.  Elsewhere  in the world,  similar cone-on-cylinder buildings  are referred to  as  'huts'. They can still be seen in European open-air museums where the different types of shelters  found all over Europe  during the Iron Age are represented.  Huts  are probably the most universal  house  form in Africa

DURBAN​​

JOHANNESBURG

PRETORIA

Ndebele House Painting and Cultural Resilience

When we arrived at the house of the artist Ndebele, Francina Danisile Mdimande, she welcomed us saying: "Sawubona", a traditional greeting that means: I appreciate you, I respect you, you are important to me, as Gerald Ndzumdza Mdimande, the guide who accompanied us, explained.   Francina was 65 at that time and it had been 20 years since she had built her house from rammed earth. The construction took 8 months. The plaster and the geometric drawings that decorate it are also 20 years old, and she has not had to redo them. This art of decorating houses, with geometric patterns in bright colors, is passed down from mother to daughter from generation to generation. In this polygamous society, the finishing and painting of the facades of Ndebele houses is the exclusive responsibility of the wives.

Next to their house was their daughter's recently built, brightly coloured house, also made from rammed earth. He showed us the type of formwork she used to compact the soil. Most of the constructions are made from mud and in some cases, especially extensions of the house are made with adobe [mud bricks].
The Ndebele descend from the Nguni tribe, who represent almost two thirds of the black population in South Africa, and both their clothing and the murals in their houses were influenced by other cultures, and successively they have incorporated new elements linked to their work and related zo modern urban life. Nowadays we observe, together with the abstract geometrical drawings, modern elements such as a telephone or a television.

The aesthetic expression is a strong cultural force and testify the power of the historical identity of this tribe, its resistance to the socioeconomic and political pressures and the limitations imposed by the poor and unproductive territory.​​

                                                            THE NDEBELES

Ndebele design development, colour and innovation in the 20th century is revolutionary. The impact on viewers was a big, bold aesthetic that took your breath away: initially, in the 1920s, with its pristine clarity and technical finesse and by the 1970s, with bold colour and audacious proportions. The abstract imagery, classical symmetry and rhythm of architectural design is distinctive only to the Ndebele people. A leading factor for the survival of Ndebele art is the cultural importance placed on girls’ puberty ceremonies,  performed every 4 years. This period of seclusion perpetuates painting and beading skills, hones knowledge of aesthetics and drives the development of style. Here, older women teach young girls about beauty, resilience and how to be leaders in the future: leaders of their families, clans and the wider community. (Ref. Ndebele Beadwork part 2)

SPANISH TRANSLATION N