UNIVERSITY OFTHEWITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG

1 HISTORY WORKSHOP

STRUCTURE AND EXPERIENCE IN THE MAKING OF APARTHEID

6 - 1 0 February 1990

AUTHOR: Franco Frescura

TITLE: ACCOMMODATION OR PROTEST ?The Rise of a Wall Decorating Tradition in RuralSouthern Africa.

II I

INTRODUCTION\

Southern Africa's rural architecture has long been associatedwith a tradition in wall decoration which predates thearrival of white colonialists to the region's interior.These designs are generally acknowledged to be the product ofwomen's efforts, and generally have remained their preservein rural areas right up to present times. Thus it is notdifficult to show that this work is a reflection of ruralwomen's fertility, political status, religious cosmology and,in certain instances, family lineage. Within this interplayof social patterns however, the choice and meaning ofpictorial subject matter begins to play a different andsomewhat ambiguous role. Originally the rural artist derivedher inspiration from natural or geometric designs andrendered them in monochromatic earth colours. In more recenttimes however, most particularly since the 1940s, their scopehas been widened to encompass a wide range of colours andsubject matter. Many western observers have chosen tointerpret this as an obvious manifestation of "cultural crosspollination" and "westernisation", thus denying its socialand historical context. A survey of those areas where walldecoration is still widely practiced today however, revealsthat although many such designs are undoubtedly polychromaticand inspired by urban themes, these may, nonetheless, belinked to a wider concept of land control and the economicdomination of the rural community on the part of anothergroup competing for the same resources. Thus what mayoutwardly appear to be an act of assimilation, and perhapseven appeasement may, in another context be interpreted as anact of protest and open defiance, visible only to those privyto its codification. This paper seeks to analyse the socialprocesses which.give rise to rural wall art and contendsthat, in the final analysis, this activity is the result ofblack resistance to outside political domination and landalienation.

FUNCTIONAL NATURE OF WALL DECORATION

It was found, during the course of current field work, thatthe decoration of rural architecture tended to fall into twomajor camps : the structural and the manipulative.

Structural decorative patterns arise from the fact thatvernacular architecture in general derives much of itsstylistic character from its functional use of foundmaterials. Thus the natural textures, details and formswhich are achieved in the process of construction areimportant, at a primary level, in determining the aestheticnature of such buildings. ' This does not mean to say thatstructural elements may not, in themselves, be manipulated(illustration 1). It is possible, for example, to achieve,within the bounds of any one particular technology, a numberof different resolutions to the same problem. It is often thecase however, that one particular solution;will tend to gainpredominance in a geographical location or region and thus,with time, may become identified with the material culture ofits builders. At the same time it may also be incorporatedinto their system of cognitive symbolism. It is therefore

possible^to conclude that, where a group living under one setof conditions develops a strong attachment to a particularstyle of architecture, it will, under different conditions,attempt to reproduce its more obvious and visual componentsby manipulative and artificial means. This is equally truein those cases where an architecture is not their own but theacquisition of its aesthetics is deemed to be eitherdesirable or advantageous to the group's interests.

On the other hand manipulative decoration may be seen to bean imposition of textures, colours and forms upon the builthabitat for reasons which bear little functional relationshipto its structural performance. The motivation behind such anactivity may be of a social, religious, mystical, politicalor symbolic nature, although it is probable that, in reality,a combination of two or more of these elements will beinvolved at any one time. Unlike structural decorativepatterns which arise as the result of the combined efforts ofboth men and women, most if not all southern African ruralgroups consider the application of painted motifs to be thework of women (illustration 2) .

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Perhaps the earliest evidence of a tradition in woman's wallart was recorded by Burchell, who visited the Tlhapinghomestead of "Serrakutu" at Dithakong in 1812 where thisman's younger wife :

"... exhibited her paintings in a manner which evincedthat she was well satisfied with her own performance.They were the figures of several animals, rudely drawn,with a paint of white earth, against the front-wall ofthe house." (1)

A year later Campbell visited the same homestead and :

"... found them very rough representations of the camelleopard (giraffe), rhinoceros, elephant, lion, tiger andstein-buck, which Salakootoo's wife had drawn on theclay wall with white and black paint." (2)

Neither traveller included pictorial graphics of thesepatterns with their accounts and it was left for Campbell torectify this omission seven years later when he depicted theinterior of a chief's dwelling at Kaditshwene, a Hurutshetown located immediately to the north of present-day Zeerust(illustration 3). This he found to be :

"...neatly finished; ... The wall was painted yellow andornamented with figures of shields, elephants,cameleopards, etc. It was also adorned with a neatcornice or border painted of a red colour." (3)

Despite being relatively brief, these three reports, taken asa whole, reveal a number of significant factors :

a. that decoration then, as now, was woman's workb. that lime-whites and charcoal or soot^-blacks were

available to the rural artist thus giving her palette ofearth colours a wide range of shades.

c. and that decorative patterns could be either geometricaland abstract or figurative and representational.

Despite what has been written in the past by such authors asWalton (4), wall art was not limited to any one particulararea in southern Africa but can be considered to have beengeneral practice, in one form or another, among most of itsagricultural pastoralist groups. Baines, who visited a Xhosadwelling near the Kabousie river in 1848 told that :

"In the mud with which the interior of the hut wasplastered, pumpkin seeds had been stuck in variouspatterns, one somewhat resembling a snake, and thenpicked out, leaving their glossy scale attached to thesurface of the wall." (5)

This must have created a pattern very similar in nature tothe "dotted" drawings recorded by Mathews in this same areanearly 130 years later (6), a style of decoration which, inthe interim, has since largely disappeared.

Kropf, who visited the same region between 1846 and 1889struck a more contemporary note when he described how theXhosa woman :

"... smoothes the walls and paints them with yellow,red or white clay or uses all three colours at the sametime and paints designs on them." (7)

Campbell's report of 1820 is also important in that itreveals that the series of 'I' (or "sideways-H") designspainted on the interior perimeter of the dwelling wall is agraphic representation of the Sotho/Tswana shield pattern(illustration 4). Thus it may be assumed that even thenmaterial objects of everyday life were being reduced by ruralartists into a series of basic forms and incorporated intotheir work. Therefore the existence of a body of cognitivesymbology perceived to exist in current Sotho wall, Ndebeleand Tsonga wall art must be seen to have its roots in a ruralsociety which precedes the' growth of industrialisation insouthern Africa.

SOME CASE STUDIES

It is possible, in theory, for wall decoration to accommodateas many variations, based upon theme and style, as there areartists to paint them. In reality, however, the functions ofsuch art are governed by the same social, economic andenvironmental processes as those which generate ruralarchitecture. As in the case of the latter, therefore, thereare also certain stylistic preferences which, in the past,have become established on a regional or group basis. Ineach instance a series of broad aesthetic principles haveemerged within which the rural artist is able to create herown individual statement in terms of colour and subjectmatter. For the purposes of this argument we are onlyinterested in four such regional manifestations in the more

recent history of southern Africa (illustration 5).

1. THE XHOSA-MFENGU CASE STUDY

The Ciskei and southern Transkei region has long been an areaof conflict between indigenous blacks and immigrant whites.Not only was it the stage of nine separate border wars,between 1811 and 1879, but, between 1822 and 1837 it alsobecame the home of Mfengu refugees from the Mfecane. These,together with the activities of missionaries, governmentagents and labour recruitment officers have all left a legacyof bitterness which manifests itself to the present day in adeep and uncompromising political radicalism. Although theboundaries of black-white settlement were formalised as longago as 1913 (8), these are still a matter of heated dispute.

This region also has deep historical, associations with agrass building technology which has since fallen into disuse.At one time the beehive dwelling was ubiquitous, being builtin some parts as recently as three generations ago, but fromthe 1870s onwards it began to be replaced by otherarchitectural forms. At first the region's builders began toraise the grass dome upon a wattle and daub drum wall butfrom the 1920s onwards this type of roof construction beganto be supplanted by a conical structure. Today the cone oncylinder is the single most popular dwelling form in theTranskei and Ciskei. Although its introduction and spreadhas been attributed by some chroniclers to the work ofmissionaries among the Mpondo during the 1850s (9), thispoint has not. yet been confirmed by current research.

The phenomenon of the so-called "white-faced" huts of theTranskei appears to have its origins in the era prior to themid-1920s (10) and could have arisen as early as the 1900s(11). The form taken by this decoration tends to follow aset pattern : the whitewashed panel covers the front third ordoor facade of the hut circumference; it is seldom taken downto ground level but a 500 mm high splashband is allowed alongits base; the surrounds to both door and window openings areexpressed; and sometimes a whitewash band is allowed to runthe full perimeter of the hut wall, but only to such a depthas may be sheltered by the width of the eaves. Furtherdecorative patterns of an individual nature may be applied tothe door and window surrounds and, in some recorded examples,the rear of the hut is rendered in a darker clay - presumablyfor reasons of environmental control (illustration 6). Thispattern of decoration may be perceived to bear a closeresemblance to the exterior facade treatment of some domesticstructures during the Victorian era. The conclusion thatthis style of design arose as a response on the part of theindigenous population to the influx of missionaries and otherwhite settlers to the region during the last century istherefore inescapable. This is supported by informants in.the southern Transkei who have attributed its introduction tothe Mfengu, also nicknamed locally as the "school people"who, as refugees from the Difaqane, were among the first inthe region to gravitate into the social and economic sphereof missionary influence. At one time the use of whitewashwas associated with a Mfengu and a Christian identity, a

supposition supported by the fact that hut painting andrenewal takes place shortly before the Christmas festivities.However, for the past three generations the painting of hutwalls has become a common place occurrence in the Transkei.Today little popular significance is attached to it otherthan the fact that both the decoration and the cone oncylinder form have become incorporated into the localarchitectural stereotype.

An interesting connection was made by some informants in thesouthern Transkei who remarked upon the similarity perceivedto exist locally between the white-washing of a hut facadeand the fact that it is customary in this region for youngmothers to smear white clay on their faces after the birth ofa child. The domestic architecture of this region may beperceived to have strong physiognomical characteristics, withthe doorway acting as a nose or mouth and the windows oneither side as eyes. This parallel has not escaped the localinhabitants, leading to the question whether the twopractices are not in fact part of the same process. Theyoung mother smears her face with white clay in order to wardoff evil from herself and her baby at a time when they areboth vulnerable to such influences. The dwelling isperceived to be the domain of the woman and the task ofpainting or decorating its walls is also hers. It isconceivable therefore that the twin practices of walldecoration and facial swearing are seen to fulfil the samemedical and mystical functions.

2. THE HIGHVELD SOTHO CASE STUDY

The highveld region of the northern Orange Free State and thesouthern Transvaal was inhabited historically by Sotho and,to a lesser degree, Tswana groups. During the Difaqane thelocal population, was decimated by both famine and warfare andmany survivors sought the refuge of the Lesotho mountains.There, under the leadership of Moshweshwe, Sotho, Tswana andNguni elements coalesced into the political entity ofLesotho, which survives to the present day. Their formerhome is now part of the Republic of South Africa where it isunder the control of a white and predominantly Afrikanerfarming community. Some Sotho have since returned to theseareas as migrant workers having no legal land ownershiprights or tenure. They live with their families on whitefarms where they are given a small plot of land to plant somecrops and build their homes.

Their residences are almost invariably built in the form ofparapet or highveld dwellings, a domestic form introducedinto Cape Town by Malay slaves during the eighteenth centuryand spread inland by immigrant Dutch farmers after 1837. Itis usually a simple, elongated, single-cell rectangular unittopped by a flat corrugated iron roof sloping to the rear.Kitchens are usually kept separate and thatched in order toallow the smoke from the cooking fire to percolate throughthe roof. Door and window' openings are located on the frontelevation which normally faces to the north or north-east.The facade is slightly asymmetrical, the door being placedfractionally off-centre, with small, square windows on either

side which imply a division.of internal space into two rooms.The basic pattern of decoration is subject to some simpleguidelines : the parapet at the top and a low splash board atthe base are expressed as long horizontal bands. The twocorners on either side are rendered as vertical elements; abroad surround is created about both door and windows and isoften allowed to run into the parapet above; the parapet bandis often decorated and its top profile sculpted in order to .create small pediments and acroterions over the doorway andthe corners respectively. Within this basic framework thenthe Sotho artist can and often does exercise considerablechoice to colour, graphic pattern and texture (illustration7).

As in the case of the "white-faced" huts, it will beperceived that the basic elements of this decorative stylehave strong links with the facade renderings of a latenineteenth century domestic architecture. In the interiortoo, the women often recreate, in clay, crockery displayshelves which are a stylised rendering of English middleclass, turn-of-the-century kitchen furniture, complete downto the presence of a cut-out paper doily trim. Thefrilliness of the doily is, at times, reflected externally inthe rendering on the parapet band, thus emphasising theessentially female nature of dwelling decoration(illustration 8).

Significantly very few examples of such decoration wererecorded within Lesotho during the course of present studies.Thus, while the Sotho of Lesotho seldom decorate their walls,their kinfolk inhabiting their former lands, presently inwhite holding, do so with a great deal of vigour andvivacity.

3. THE SOUTH NDEBELE CASE STUDY

The South Ndebele are a Nguni group who migrated into theTransvaal during the fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries(12). They comprise two major branches, the Manala and theNdzundza. The latter, generally regarded as being the juniorof the two, is the subject of this brief study. When theDutch first encountered them in 1847, they inhabited the areaabout Namashaxelo, situated near Roossenekal in the south-eastern Transvaal (13). Today most reside on white-ownedfarms in the Bronkhorstspruit, Groblersdal and Middelburgdistricts although more recently the South African governmenthas established a "homeland" on their behalf in the Dennilton

On 14 August 1882 the Pedi chief Sekhukhune was killedalongside fourteen of his advisors. The blame for this deedwas laid at the door of Mampuru, Sekhukhune's younger brother(14). Kruger's South African Republic (ZAR), which at thetime had been endeavouring to establish a suzerainty over thePedi, attempted to arrest Mampuru, who fled to the Ndzundza.The latter, under the leadership of Nyabele, in their turnnot only refused to hand the,refugee over, but also declinedto pay their hut-tax, thus symbolically rejecting theoverlordship which the ZAR had recently imposed over them.

As a result a Boer commando of between 1000 and 2000 meninvested the Ndzundza's mountain stronghold in October 1882.Nine months later Nyabele Capitulated and handed himself andMampuru over to the Dutch (15). The Ndzundza, starved anddynamited into submission, were deprived of their lands,divided and indentured to the farmers who had fought on theZAR commando. They were thus effectively scattered in anattempt to break their political power as a group.

Up to 1883, the South Ndebele as a whole are reputed to havebuilt their dwellings in the form of grass beehive domes(16). Following the defeat of the Ndzundza at the hands ofthe ZAR, their architecture underwent a measure of change.The cone on cylinder structure, prevalent among theirneighbours, the Pedi, was adopted with a few modifications.These include the retention of the "umsamo", a typicallyNguni feature of domestic architecture located to the rear ofthe hut, but acting as a seat for the men, and the partialenclosure of the hut's front circumference with a verandah.It is also possible that this was the stage when they adoptedthe Pedi manner of building courtyard walls and defininghomestead perimeters. This new style of constructionhowever, does not appear to have lasted more than three orfour generations for, by the 1940s, the cone on cylinder wasalready being replaced by flat-roofed parapet or "highveld"dwellings.

It was also during this latter period that the South Ndebelebegan to paint the walls of their dwellings and courtyardsusing a variety of decorative patterns. Some decorations areof a textural nature; some adopt a simple geometrical motifand repeat it in various ways on a wall; some begin to pickout and highlight various structural elements of thearchitecture; and some take a familiar object, most often aflower or a tree, and reproduce it in a stylised manner.South Ndebele architecture does all these things and more.On the one hand it draws deeply from a textural and geometricSotho/Tswana tradition and, on the other, it gives rise torules of facade decoration which break down the variousstructural components of the dwelling in a manner similar tothat evolved by the Sotho of the Orange Free State highveld.Most important however, it also develops patterns and imagesbased largely upon the Victorian nature of southern Africansmall-town architecture as well as the graphics of an urbanconsumer and industrial society further afield (illustration9). These are then reproduced not only on the courtyardwalls and house facade of Jbhe homestead but become part of amore complex system of symbology, being transferred frommother to daughter in the form of a beaded apron during thecourse of the marriage ceremony. A graphic language has alsobeen allowed to develop, similar in many ways to the Zulubead love letter (17), which, in some cases, has been noticedto advertise the home dweller's profession as a midwife, thehusband's sexual potency or just the presence of a certaintype of motor vehicle in the vicinity.

4. THE VENDA-TSONGA CASE STUDY

The region of land immediately south of the Soutpansberge, in

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the northern Transvaal, has long been the home to a number ofVenda and Tsonga groups. Although the former have laidhistorical claim to its control for at least two centuries,since the Mfecane of 1822 to 1837, various waves of Tsongarefugees have made their way there from the east. As aresult the two cultures have intermingled, the Venda settlingthe hill-tops, the Tsonga the plains. These patterns havebeen maintained to the present day, despite attempts of thePretoria government to enforce its peculiar ideology ofethnic separatism. Because of intermarriage between the twogroups, recent times have witnessed the rise of a hybridculture which belongs to neither but draws deeply from both.

The mechanics of this culture are interesting to trace. TheVenda have, in many cases, retained their historical hold onthis land and although the Tsqnga have been allowed todevelop their own political structures, their leadership hasremained largely in the hands of Venda appointees. Also theprocess of initiating teenagers into local social polity isstill controlled by the Venda. As a result the Tsongaremained, for many years, a socially and economicallyunderprivileged group, a status which only began to beredressed in more recent times. During this period thereoccurred a major shift in Tsonga architecture which took itaway from the more historical models recorded by Junod aslate as the 1900s towards the aesthetics (but not thestructural formats) of Venda settlements. Today Tsongahomesteads in this region not only display a barely maskedapproximation of their Venda neighbours but, through aprocess of cultural borrowing and intermarriage, thedecorations of the one have begun to festoon the dwellings ofthe pther.

At first the decorations painted by Tsonga women followed indemure emulation of the leaf and plant patterns rendered insombre earth colours by their Venda sisters (illustration10). Since the mid-1970s however, they have begun todiverge, introducing to their repertoire a rich variety offorms and colours which, although still noticeably related totheir Venda origins, are nonetheless already developingregional identity of their own (illustration 11).

SOME COMMON TRENDS

An analysis of the above case studies reveals a number ofstrong threads which link them into a larger pattern ofsocial activity.

a. Fertility. Like their historical counterpartsdocumented by Burchell, Campbell and Baines, the abovecase studies are all the outcome of women's work. Theyare painted by a wife some two years after she has givenbirth to her first-born child. Thus, wall decoration issymbolic of women's fertility and serves to indicate herstatus in the community as a mother, head of homesteadand responsible adult.

b. Family Political Rights. By giving birth to a child awoman also gains for her husband full participation in

the community's council of men as a family head. Herwork therefore is symbolic of how her fertility hasgiven her family a voice in the public affairs of thegroup. This factor is contrasted by the status ofbachelors in rural society who, although not necessarilydiscriminated against, are nonetheless treated as youngchildren, regardless of their age. The homestead of abachelor, a rare occurrence in rural life, is neverdecorated nor is it bound by perimeter walls.

c. Rites of Passage. Although wall decoration may, inprinciple, be applied at any time during the course ofthe year, in practice it will be seen that such activityis generally limited to two main periods :

i. times of slow economic activity, generally winteror early spring,1 which also coincides to the dryseason of the southern African interior.

ii. Times of transition in rural life, such as theinitiation of teenagers into adulthood, whichtheoretically takes place in winter, or a marriage,which may take place at any time.

Either activity must be seen to be primarily connectedwith the work and existence of women within the rurallife cycle, thus reinforcing the symbolism of walldecoration as a reflection of women and their ritual.

d. Territoriality. Wall decoration plays a strong symbolicrole in the creation of living areas among thosesouthern African groups who define their exterior livingspaces by means of perimeter or courtyard walls. Recentstudies conducted among the Pedi of the northernTransvaal have indicated that painting has direct linksto a cosmological belief which perceives women to beinherently "hot". Homestead boundaries are seen to besimilarly "hot", most particularly where two women sharethe same division wall; these then need to be "cooled". by a process of wall smearing and decoration which,presumably, might also imply a degree of cooperationbetween the two parties concerned. Thus wall decorationnot only serves to create statements of territorialcontrol but, by implication, suggests that women aremore than just passive partners to their menfolk in thecontrol of rural household space and food resources.

e. Heraldry. The case studies quoted above have tended toshow, almost without exception, that a measure ofheraldry was implied in the designs of rural wall art.A survey conducted in the village of Madakamba in thenorthern Transkei, revealed that :

* in virtually all cases, the dwellings in the samehomestead grouping, usually numbering no more thanthree or four, had the same pattern applied to allthe units.

* where a daughter married and settled near hermother, she usually painted the same patterns uponher dwelling as those upon her parents'.

* where a son married and settled near his mother,his wife painted' the same patterns upon herdwelling as those upon her mother-in-laws1.

* in one case, where a daughter married and settlednear her mother, after a family quarrel the formerhad changed her own wall decorations, to acompletely new pattern.

When questioned further on this point local informantsadmitted to there being a degree of identity implied inwall patterns but did not give it undue significance.As one young woman phrased it "I could see a drawingfrom the bus and take it home in my head." Althoughthese results are therefore not, in themselvesconclusive, other cases of implied heraldry were alsorecorded among the South Ndebele of the Transvaal. Asin other cases the work is conducted either by themother, or by her daughters under her direct guidance.The complex patterns are thus part of the young girl'straining and are reinforced when, upon marriage, she ispresented by her mother with a partly-finished beadedapron bearing the essential elements of this design.The daughter is then expected to complete the apron. after her marriage. Although in theory the young bridemay choose to decorate her walls in whatever pattern shewishes, in reality, her first design seldom strays farfrom that which she learnt at home as a child and whichshe carried away with her in a shorthand form as part ofher wedding dowry.

It also becomes possible, among this same group, toextend the symbolism of female power and fertility tothe homestead plan as a whole. The front courtyard isthe wedding apron, the main dwelling is the womb fromwhich the children and the wealth of the familyoriginate; the rear quarters which house the childrenand the kitchen are the breasts.whence all nourishmentoriginates.

When one considers the practice of wall painting in thelarger socio-economic and political context of southernAfrica, this activity could be interpreted as beingsymbolic of a new status for women in rural society.The widespread use of migrant labour in the industrialand urban areas takes a large proportion of the ruralmale population away from their families for the majorpart of the year. During this time the control ofresources is largely left in the hands of their womenand although their society is both patrillneal andpatrilocal, the absence of the menfolk begins to meetsome of the criteria for the establishment of amatrilocal and even matrilineal society (18).

It may therefore be suggested that rural wall decorationis the first material manifestation of such adevelopment, an idea supported by the fact thetransmittance of decorative patterns is well into itsthird generation and could now be entering a fourth.

f. Regional Identity. Although it may be shown that theindigenous architecture of rural southern Africa fallsinto two major settlement cosmologies (19), it isequally true that a number of smaller regionalidentities have also developed within this largerframework. Their nature is dependent upon the creationof aesthetic stereotypes based upon building technology,dwelling form and decorative motif. However, whilst the• first two may be found to be common to a number ofgeographical areas, there is no doubt that in each casestudy quoted above the women concerned have created astyle of wall decoration unique to their region. Thusthe work of women must be seen as a major factor in therecent growth of smaller social polities in thiscountry.

g. Source of Decorative Material. Each case study quotedabove also highlights the fact that the rural artist hasderived her decorative motifs from the artifacts andculture of another socially, economically andpolitically dominant group. The Mfengu and Xhosa, thehighveld Sotho and the South Ndebele have all basedtheir wall art upon the material culture of latenineteenth century colonial society whose artifacts theyobserved in the urban areas they visited during marketdays or in search of employment. The Tsonga, on theother hand, patterned themselves upon the aesthetics ofthe neighbouring Venda upon whose lands they settledsome generations ago.

POLITICAL RESISTANCE AND LAND CONTROL

A clue as to the more fundamental reasons underlying thedevelopment of a wall decorating tradition in my study areasmay probably be found in the struggle for land which hastaken place in southern Africa over the past two centuries,most particularly since the 1920s. Although such competitionhas, in the main, involved indigenous black and immigrantwhite groups, the Venda-Tsonga case study indicates that thecontrol of land is, and has also been, a point of contentionbetween indigenous communities.

Despite the claims of white propagandists, it may be shownthat the arrival of European settlers to southern Africa didnot bring about a pax abaLunga over the region. On thecontrary it is recorded that, since 1811, we have seen 24major conflicts and over two score smaller localisedconflagrations. This means that, on average, one majorrebellion, war or uprising has taken place in this countryevery third year for the past 176 years (20).

An analysis of these conflagrations also makes forinteresting reading. Only, two were the result of internalblack-on-black schisms although seven others were affairs towhich only whites were invited. Their chronology alsoreveals that, in almost every case, they coincide with thespread of white settlement throughout the region, beginningin the Eastern Cape, fanning out onto the highveld andeventually engulfing the entire coastal belt.

The reasons recorded for these conflicts are many and varied.The majority however may be seen to have been the result ofcompetition for land between white and black rural groups.The single most important source of friction between thesetwo therefore must lie in the control, or lack of, that eachexercises over agricultural land.

The relationship existing between the rural activity of walldecoration and the land conflict which has taken placebetween indigenous black and immigrant white is not one whichmay be easily quantified. For one thing it is doubtful thatany one person or body took the conscious decision that wallsshould be painted as an act of popular protest against theprocess of land dispossession. For another, the nature ofthe subject matter renders it highly unlikely that it wouldbe openly discussed with strangers, particularly if they werewhite. Also, the possibility of stumbling across thefountainhead - if indeed she may even be considered to exist!- is so remote as to make such empirical research virtuallyimpossible. However all circumstantial evidence on thesubject seems to indicate that such a hypothesis is indeedcorrect.

In every case study quoted thus far the aesthetics of walldecoration have played an important role in reinforcing (orperhaps even creating) a unique regional identity for thegroups concerned. The Mfengu began whitewashing their wallsat the urgings of white missionaries upon whose stations theyhad settled as landless refugees. The practice spread toother Mfengu occupying Xhosa land outside the mission as astatement of their identity but, as the differences between"school people" (Mfengu) and "red blanket people" (Xhosa)began to be reconciled through social interaction andmarriage, wall art gained undertones of Christian religiousaffiliation. Ultimately, during the 1940s and 1950s thepractice became identified with a wider Xhosa-speakingidentity. Significantly current research has shown that anotable reduction in wall decorating activity has taken placein the Transkei since that region gained a measure ofgovernmental autonomy in 1976.

Similar patterns may be established for the Tsonga whoseprecarious land tenure led them to adopt the architecturalaesthetics of the neighbouring Venda and for the highveldSotho and the South Ndebele whose land is currently in theholding of the very white farmers whose colonial architecturethey emulate in their decoration. It is again important tonote that Sotho residing in Lesotho seldom decorate theirwalls whilst a marked reduction has been noted amongst theSouth Ndebele since the establishment of KwaNdebeleimmediately north-east of Pretoria.

The connection between wall art and black political protestwas also made in 1975 bu Julian Beinard during the course ofresearch set in the Johannesburg suburb of Western NativeTownship. In it he described how the first decorations,consisting of basic patterns and animals scratched in the mudplaster, were applied by Kwena residents between 1918 and1930. The next three decades witnessed an increase in local

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political activity which was paralleled by a similar growthin the practice of wall art (illustration 12). This reachedits peak between 1950 and 1962 during which time :

"Decorations on plaster walls (became) very popular withmany variations on a limited number of themes." (21)

Ultimately, in 1962, the black residents of Western NativeTownship were forcibly resettled out of their homes into thenewly established suburb town of Soweto. The new inhabitantsof the suburb, now renamed Western Coloured Township, did notbother to maintain these decorations and, within a shorttime, these all disappeared (22).

Finally, the chronology of wall decoration on the highveldtends to indicate that, although its basic elements may havebeen present in a rudimentary form before the 1930s, thepractice did not begin to gain momentum until the decadesbefore and during the Second World War. Significantly thisis also a period which saw the rise and ultimate coming topower of Afrikaner Nationalism and when the black strugglefor political emancipation had not yet reached the levels ofactivity it achieved in the post-1948 era. The ruralpractice of decorating a homestead's walls may therefore beinterpreted to have arisen during the hiatus between the lastrural war of resistance, the so-called "Bambata Rebellion" of1906 and the black freedom movements of the 1950s and 1960s.

There is little doubt that, like the women of the Transkeiand Ciskei region who whiten their faces in propitiation ofancestral spirits, there is an element of appeasement in thepractice of wall decoration. The use of western buildingtechnologies and house aesthetics may well be attributable topractical reasons such as economics and ease of construction,but the use of decorative patterns acquired from anothergroup stretches beyond this into the field of symbolism andsocial practice. However one needs to question whether sucha message of overt appeasement is not, in reality, an act ofsubvert resistance. Generally speaking and with the notableexception of the Tsonga, the use of borrowed wall designs islimited to the outside facade of the dwelling or thehomestead concerned. internal walls are normally rendered ina simpler monochromatic style linked to the decorativemotiefs of earlier generations which stand in sharp contrastto the complex polychromatic work of recent times. Thelatter's chronology of development places it firmly into atime when formal resistance to white political dominance wasat a low; when the effects of the rural land acts werebeginning to become evident; when rural poverty was beginningto spread; when rural women began to find their men beingchanneled in increasing numbers into a system of migrantlabour; when whites across the virtual spectrum of politicalopinion saw blacks as being voteless, dispossessed andlandless in perpetuity; and at a time when formal blackresistance was limited to an ANC which had'1 but recentlyadopted a more confromtational stance., It was during thistime that rural women took up the cudgels of their people'sstruggle and began to decorate their homestead walls, makingstatements about their social conditions and creating images

of regional and political identity.

THE FUTURE OF RURAL WALL ART AND DECORATION

It is not easy to make projections regarding the survival,the evolution or, even, the dissemination of rural wall artin a future southern Africa. Certainly if the practice isthe mere aesthetic manifestation of the status and role ofwomen in their own societies, then its continuance may beconfidently predicted for as long as the social processeswhich generated it are still in force. However, if itssymbolism is indeed connected to a wider concept of politicalresistance and land tenure, then the guestion becomes moredifficult to answer. It is possible that a redress of thesocial and economic inegualities which beset this country maywell remove its reason for survival and thus, indirectly,bring about its eventual demise. However it might equally bemore realistic to create a scenario whereby a prolongedstruggle between black and white would bring about areduction of regional differences for the sake of a unitedfront towards a common antagonist. One of the first victimsof such a move will undoubtedly be the more obvious andvisible elements of rural material culture, such as localdecorative patterns, building textures, dwelling forms and,ultimately, regional architecture as a whole. The sad truthof rural wall art therefore, is that it may only have arisenin the first place as a black response to white politicaldomination, and that this same social imbalance mayultimately bring about its demise.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. BURCHELL, William J."Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa". London :Batchworth Press, 1953.

2. CAMPBELL, John"Travels in South Africa". London : Black & Parry,1815.

3. CAMPBELL, John"Travels in South Africa ... Being a Narrative of aSecond Journey". London : Francis Westley, 1822.

4. WALTON, James"African Village". Pretoria : Van Schaik, 1956.

5. BAINES, Thomas"Journal of Residence in Africa, 1842-1853". Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society, 1961 and 1964.

6. MATTHEWS, Thomas Herbert"Tribal Paintings in South Africa, with ParticularReference to Xhosa Painting". Unpublished D.Litt. etPhil, manuscript, UNISA, 1971.

7. SHAW, E.M. & VAN WARMELO, N.J."The Material Culture of the Cape Nguni : Part 1 -Settlement". Annals of the South African Museum, Vol58. Cape Town, 1972.

8. DAVENPORT, T.R.H. & HUNT, K.S."The Right to the Land". Cape Town : David Philip,1974.

9. HUNTER, M."Reaction to Conguest". London : Oxford UniversityPress, 1936.

10. DUGGAN-CRONIN, A.M.• "The Bantu Tribes of Xfrica". Vol 3, Sections 1, 2 and5. Kimberley : Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum,1939, 1949 and 1954.

11. Postcard entitled "Natives at Home", dated 11 July 1903.Author's private collection.

12. VAN WARMELO, N.J."Transvaal Ndebele Texts". Pretoria : GovernmentPrinter, 1930.

13. KUPER, Adam"Fourie and the Southern Transvaal Ndebele". AfricanStudies, Vol 37, No 1, 1978. pp 107-123.

14. BRUCE, H.J."The Arts and Crafts of the Transvaal Ndebele". Articlein "Africana Byways", Anna H Smith, editor, pp 132-150.Johannesburg : Ad. Donker, 1976.

15. BRUCE, H.J."The Arts and Crafts of the Transvaal Ndebele". Article

• in "Africana Byways",'Anna H Smith, editor, pp 132-150.Johannesburg : Ad. Donker, 1976.

16. VAN WARMELO, N.J."Transvaal Ndebele Texts". Pretoria : GovernmentPrinter, 1930.

17. TWALA, Regina G."Beads as Regulating the"Social Life of the Zulu and theSwazi". African Studies, Vol 10, No 3. pp 113-123.

18. FOX, Robin"Kinship and Marriage". Harmondsworth, Middlesex :Penguin Books, 1981.

19. FRESCURA, Franco"Major Developments in the Rural Indigenous Architectureof Southern Africa of the post-Difaqane Period".Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of theWitwatersrand, 1985.

20. FRESCURA, Franco"Land Redistribution and Social Conflict". Paperpresented to the IDASA Freedom charter RegionalConsultative Conference. Port Elizabeth, 13-14 May1988.

21. BEINART, Julian"2000 Two-Faced Houses By The Violent Playground".Article in "World Architecture 2", John Donat, Editor.London : Studio Vista, 1965. pp 184-193.

22. BEINART, Julian"Patterns of Change in an African Housing Environment".Article in "Shelter, Sign and symbol", Paul Olivereditor. New York : The Overlook Press, 1977. pp 160-182.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Decorative rope patterns, Natal Nguni homestead, Mpembe,KwaZulu, c 1981.

2. Venda homestead, Mutele, northern Venda, 1989.3. Campbell : Interior of Tswana chief's dwelling,

Kaditshwene (near present-day Zeerust), c 1820.4. Campbell : Portrait of Tswana warrior bearing I-shaped

shield, c 1820.5. Map, showing areas of study under discussion.6. Examples of wall decoration, Ciskei region, c 1979.7. Stereotypical example of flat roofed dwelling, Highveld

region, during the 1970s and 1980s.8. Examples of highveld wall decoration, c 1980.9. Examples of South Ndebele wall decoration which use the

basic elements of Victorian residential architecture asa theme. KwaMatabeleng, Bophuthatswana, c 1951 and 1981respectively.

10. Examples of Venda wall decoration (top), northern Venda,1989,* and homestead wall sculpture (bottom) , Sambandou,central Venda, c 1980.

11. Examples of Tsonga wall decoration (top); and homesteadwall sculpture (bottom), northern Gazankulu, 1987-9.

12. Beinart, 1977 r Wall decorations, Western NativeTownship, c 1950-60.