When one travels through cities in South Africa, one will notice the color that is on many of the walls of the houses, the businesses, even the boutique hotels. South Africa is home to many tribes that traveled around the country during times of war or political strife, and these traditions have mixed and influenced the culture. One tradition held on to by the Ndebele is that of painting murals on the outside walls of their houses. They have been doing this for more than one hundred years.
During the 1800′s the Ndebele still lived in grass houses. During the times of the Boer fighting, they moved to other areas, became neighbors with other tribes, the Pedi and Sotho, and began constructing mud houses. They also started to participate in, and eventually to alter the tradition of the Sotho practices of painting their walls with their fingers. Now the Ndebele use brushes made with the feathers of chickens.
The began using pigments of the earth such as browns and yellows, just painting their window and door frames. They would outline the designs with charcoal. Soon after, they began dragging their fingers through the wet mud, or plaster. Walls were sectioned and the various patterns present striking contrasts. Their belief system entails the adherence to the wishes of their ancestors, which is to create a continuity of their culture through the paintings. The older forms of this style of painting are still used by contemporary painters today, to keep the ancestors at peace.
The Ndebele moved locations again, when the freed slaves and servants migrated to the city of Hartebeesfontein. Lacking their homeland and their King, they became exiles, and separated from their identity. They held on to their language and their ceremonies such as the First Fruits initiation and rites of passage. They also continued to dress in their colorful clothes and to paint their houses. And in spite of, or perhaps because of this sense of marginalization, the paintings and the colors flourished and new developments began to present themselves.
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