#nguni mythology

[allmythologies]

day 20 of horror mythology: tikoloshe

tikoloshe are a mischievous and evil spirit that can become invisible by drinking water or swallowing a stone. tokoloshes are called upon by malevolent people to cause trouble for others. at its least harmful, a tokoloshe can be used to scare children, but its power extends to causing illness or even the death of the victim. 

[missmayhemvr]

How Europe underdeveloped Africa and its legacy

first and formost before i break this down, this is not a post for white people to express their guilt, or savoir complex or love of historical revisionism. you'll not just be blocked, you'll go on a block list on this post, don't do it to yourself, i wont even have to be the one to do it. secondly this is a covering of the broad themes, lessons, and understanding within the book and what we should learn from it. third, i will often talk from my own perspective from which i will round to a larger context.

part 1- history and anthropology

As someone who has grown up black in the us, i grew up with a particular understanding or idea of Africa, the slave trade and the way America and Europe came about. you hear about tribal or ethnic disputes in the context of modern Africa and hear quite a lot of blatantly racist things about Africans. which caused me to get very into history, to which you learn when it comes to Africa there's not a lot of great places to start. this is something quite similar to the various indigenous peoples of the Americas as well. this has always been presented to me as a fault of Africans for not having history and is a long standing idea of white intellectuals from the 1800s to the Joe every man of today. the truth is Africa has history, there's no land, that has no history and Europe just devalues histories not associated with itself. there's a absolute glut of kingdoms, empires, languages, historical traditions, governing styles, cultural roles, trade networks etc etc. the fact of the matter is, that there's just very little Europeans want to learn about Africa that isn't to colonial ends, even today.

This is something Walter covers in great detail, to such a point that even as someone that has been purposely elbows deep into listening to everything i can find on African history i still had to go look up various pre-colonial kingdoms and figures. there is not a region of Africa that he doesn't take time to address in at least some detail, from Oyo and Ashanti on the west African coast, to the north of the Maghreb with Morocco and Algeria, east to the great lakes region, the horn of africa and south to the Zulus, koi koi, and Nguni peoples and kingdoms. The extensiveness to which he covers material forms of production, trade, and methods of historical preservation of culture, the types and breath of items, created and traded all through like cloth, glass, iron working, artistic ventures like bronze sculptures of benin and food production and cultization and the formations of various styles of rule, early democracy, and other such information put to bed nearly all of the non-nonsensical ideas that africa was a grand continent without progress, innovation, or skills and everything great, large, or more complex than rubbing to sticks together came from europe or arabs.

The book delves quite deep into the mythology of intense african slavery and violence which would be later used by europeans to justify colonization of africa to each other, said colonization, i will swing around back to much as the book does.

The middle passage, the triangle trade, the atlantic slave trade, these are all names for the event that was one of the chief reason to the economic and scientific take off of europe that would lead to industrialism, with the other being the colonization of the americans. stolen land and labor pushed the european world from not much a concern to anyone but those who had to deal with the crusades to the paramount power that controlled nearly all the sea trade, and held large swaths of territories of the world. we all know most of that, but walter ask the question on the other side of that coin. what did the slave trade do to africa? and why did they participate? the short answer is it changed the entire way african economies functioned and lessened the possibility of growth not just of kingdoms over territories, but of production and developement of sectors such as iron working, glass making, and agriculture. and in a very literal sense was one of the earliest forms of the phenomenon known today as brain drain and depopulation. we quite literally will never know the amount of people stolen or killed for slavery, we only know that as the rest of the world experienced high population growth africa and the americas started to experience intense depopulation. these phenomena weren't incidental they were known, and admitted as purposeful by figures qouted in the book. The african leaders at the time how ever were stuck between a rock and a hard place, many noted not just the importance of guns, but also recognized the importance of population growth at the onset. the game however being rigged from the start would have taken a miracle to over come. japan was the one country to escape colonialism in most meaningful senses, and that was because the dutch taught them how to produce guns and would trade with them "almost" as equals. these are also things addressed by rodney, the sale of arms was often highly lopsided, with Portugal and dutch traders only being willing to trade badly produced or broken guns, low quality powder and shot for slaves. this would not change until europeans would learn of other african products that they could make us of in their markets as raw materials such as ivory or kola nuts, this change would not happen for quite a while and mainly after the Europeans had already built their industrial bases and had taken total control of trade routes and begun to flood African markets with "cheap" products. the combinations of factors both purposeful and accidental shifted the African economies into a near total reliance on Europe economically and militarily but not yet politically. these are all expertly researched and explained to a point it is nearly impossible to refute any points. This points are all also something i can confirm from nearly every single source that ive looked into on African history.

part 2 -colonial "development"

This is a portion of history ill admit to doing my best to stay away from, generally much of my knowledge on it till this book has been on what happened with various kingdoms that fell in the late 1800s and early 1900s or by the various oral and 3rd hand accounts of what peoples familes, parents and even political elites went through. ill be frank, i did not go into the depth of the horrors of what happened with slavery, slave raiding, and its secondary effects, for this section and the next ill have to go through quite a lot. ill try to tone it down as best as i can, but on some of it even the implied parts are going to be horrid. I believe it is however important to face those head on, to truly understand the so called "white mans burden" or the reality of what that meant was.

colonialism meant making the final step, taking africa politically and physically. europe made the leap whole heartly to take all of africa, land, people, and any potential valuables, resources and to exploit everything they could get their hands on to the fullest extent possible. i do not use anything in the prior sentence lightly. Europeans like to play word games and often, the idea that they ended slavery in any meaningful sense is false, and ill come back to that in the final section. during the period of colonial control europeans destroyed just about anything of the prior rulers they could, and stole anything they could. theres a likelihood in my mind that theres many and african sculpture, painting, and cloth or glass work that sits in the home of a collector that got rich off the stolen plunder of africa. these includes many villages, cities, and palaces and shires and places of worship and places of craft. whole cities were destroyed such as kumasi, taking with it histories, architectural stylings and methods of production.

during this period was the final shift from internal political and economic growth to purely serving the empires to which ones lands belonged. no longer would rulers push for education reforms or challenges on religious bodies to strengthen any part of the nation, it was a total transformation into a form of state slavery. this is as metaphorical as literal, europeans would begin to change agriculture to be primarily centered around cash crops and mining labor to which labor was forced. people were made to pay taxes in the modern sense through the wages made through said labor. these taxes were in turn used primarily to fund the upkeep of oppressive forces and funding the check books of colonial governors, an insanely tiny portion of these funds were used for anything besides extracting wealth and resources.

the various governments put little to no money, research, or development into anything but cash crops and pulling things out the ground. the only times they put money into schools, training or even medical resources for people in African, it was for better wealth extraction and always the bare minimum. i believe (don't have the book in front of me rn) west Africa (from west of chad and south of Algeria) only had one university until the late 50s. the industrial sector of Africa was near completely killed, Africans in settler areas were not allowed to own even small scale industrial machinery such as cotton gins or fruit oil extraction machines, in non-settler state areas generally only peoples brought into Africa for the purpose of being a separated class of petite boug representatives for the colonizers were allowed to own industrial machinery. electricity was mostly for those same classes of individuals, hospital access, education access, pretty much anything you need for a community to survive esp in the modern era was highly restricted from Africans. To say that Europe "developed" Africa in any sense is beyond a bold faced lie, and it was something ,Rodney points out, that Europeans were quite proud of until they started to face push back for the level of humanity and exploitation they were facing. Once they started to get pushed out they changed their tune to the lie of African development and modernization. just like the lie of ending slavery for moral reasons and invading Africa to end slavery. Speaking of ending slavery in Africa, Rodney points to several figures who openly gloated about how they ran their colonial post or corporate holdings as slave plantations. king Leopold is one of the more famous examples of it, but far from the only one, many took delight in their cruelty. famine became endemic in regions that were the origins of many foods and cultivates crops, as all the agricultural process that could be shifted to cash crops were. Roads and trains ran from the mines and plantations to the seas and very little else. Various things needed to export raw materials were built with slave labor, like a airport in Kenya built by hand, no machinery via forced labor of Kikuyu peoples

Europe's only goal in Africa was land and profits, the same as in the Americas. genocide, slavery, starvation campaigns were common tools of colonizers in Africa all the way up to today, which i will re-address in part 4.

part 3 - education, traditional and political

Education is a very clear and important part of modern life, but also for building a nation, and self dependence, so it is of no wonder than colonizers thought that it should be restricted in Africa in regards to Africans. The various quotes and framing that Europeans used to dismiss the idea that Africans should have access to any form of formal education sounds exactly like quotes pulled from the most vicious of slavers of the prior centuries in the US and Haiti. One of the most prominent ideas that was education would "spoil" Africans, was a sentiment was also expressed by slavers. this section of the book is very much facts and figures on just how little access to education there was, how little funding went into it vs the amount of profits coming out of the various regions as well as how this was over come. two of the prime ways that was done according to the book and much of what Ive heard prior, was through the use of missionary schools or independent schools. These schools were primarily funded not by the colonial governments but by the peoples seeking education, their families, and so on, with the expectation that those educated would teach the rest of the family. education how ever was shown to not really pull people out of poverty nor to really give African peoples the possibility of positions of power or influence. this was such a near universally a rule, Amilcar Cabral, revolutionary leader and agricultural engineer even spoke to his personal experiences with being educated far beyond the man in charge of him yet having zero say in his job, his boss was renownly a dumb man. This was not an uncommon thing. Rodney goes well into it, and this just exemplifies how Europeans only saw Africans as a source of cheap and "unskilled labor". Access to education even if funded by the peoples seeking education themselves was clamped down on sharply once revolution was on the wind. Those who know the patterns of history though would have known that the clamping down made that worse, it simply accelerated the wants for education, as well as for independence.

part 4 - modern Africa and modern euro/america

When the cards started to fold on empire they took many different routes to lessen the fall for power, France tried blowing thing up and killing cattle and destroying things needed for civil life, a all call for genocide against Algerians. Britian, Portugal, most of them tried the same things, but they were pushed out in some ways, and when that became obvious they turned to the small group of political insiders they rapidly trained to take over in their stead. for those that weren't under the control of the colonizers they turned to the coup and military dictatorship. very few of the revolutionary leaders of africa were able to stay in power, many turned toward methods some would call authoritarian. without the context of what was going on and how unstable the situation was for these leaders and just how quickly and violently these revolutions could be overturned, it would be easy to take these figures as just becoming despots without reason, some of them really did become despots who just started functioning as neocolonial cops. This brings us to the modern era, and the current method of colonialism not just in africa but much of the world, Neocolonialism, or as i like to call it "home rule".

European nations were not ready to give up control, but they decided they would be willing to give up the appearance of direct rule. economic decisions, the political direction of countries, borders, very little of the modern africans situation was not directly decided on by europeans or americans. financial institutions such as the world bank and IMF lend these governments that had to try and start building actual nations with functioning economies loans with interest rates they would not be able to pay back in time, with conditions that made it even hard to meet the internal goals or pay back the loans and additional conditions of economic control by the IMF for failure to pay these loans. colonial governments such as France forced nations like Mali to pay taxes till recently, and nearly all the colonial powers set the trade rules between them and their "former" colonies in Africa. very few leaders were able to chart much of a path for progress or development that met the needs of the people before these various things snatched much of the independence back away from the people, pushing Africa away from shifting toward an agricultural sector that feed the people and an industrial sector capable of growing the economies or a scientific sector able to make adjustments or provide notable push in any direction. Fifa has more say in policy when they decide to host in a country than the people or even large segments of the governments of Africa. Nkrumah and Rodney both in their respective titles showcase this well, however neither would live to see much past the end of overt colonial rule.

Today there is a larger push against neocolonial rule and economic control than prior, organizations such as BRICS, china's one belt one road policy, and smaller grass roots works and various coups have shifted us to a different situation in Africa than what it has been in for the last 80+ years. However this is not a wholly different situation to that my grandmother would have heard of. much of the continent is still very much under euroamerican influence, the us of slave labor or near slave labor conditions is still a significant factor in the economic relationship between Africa and its former colonizers, which is seen very strongly in the Congo and in coco production. Africa is still yet to industrialize in a manner that matches its needs and this is generally at the behest of its colonizers, and in the majority of the continent the colonial capitalist ventures still own land and resources they stole and murdered their way into, settler property relations have also been solidified in places like south Africa. i would believe that Rodney would say that say that Africa still has a long way to go if he was still around.

The themes of the book were quite complex, and it was refreshing in many ways to be presented with such a sober look into Africa. Read the book, understand what its saying and try to use a similar level of consciousness, nuance, and thought in your day to day analysis of the world around you, and we may have a chance at fixing this ship.

To depart from the contents of the book, i would like to address the white man in the room. Europe, its role in history and its modern role in history, like I've said at the top, not time or place for white people tears. I'm going to be brutally honest, and I'm going to combine the thoughts and finding of not just Nkrumah and Rodney, but also figures like Fanon, Malcom X, Kwame Ture,Rev Martin Luther king Jr and many others of the course of Africana histories and philosophies.

Europe, more particularly Western Europe, has spent the last few hundred years visiting horror on horror on the world, when it comes to the modern era, they simply have not stopped. the damage Europe as a bloc has done, much like the amount of people who were enslaved or killed for the slave trade, will never be full accounted for and that tab just keeps growing. There is no sign of it slowing or stopping. Empires don't like to stop existing, this is something those interested in history know very well. The problem is that Europe cannot be honest nor up front about this, be it the League of nations or the EU and America, or even in the face of the UN, Europe and its Settler states it spawned is just as addicted to domination and profit seeking at all cost as it was 100 years ago which was no different when the slave trade began. Europeans/ White people as a whole as still strongly in the belief that they have a moral high ground to speak to the rest of the world when the truth of the matter is for nearly 500 years, white peoples flying European flags have been histories biggest villains. even in the 21st century, Europe's role on the world stage has been that of a vampire. sucking the life from others to sustain itself. it is still violently racist and xenophobic, which is ironic for peoples who have literally invaded the vast majority of the world, nor is it any more moral or upright today than on the eve of colonialism in the Americas or Africa or any other portion of the world. the EU can barely come together today to denounce blatant acts of genocide and white people are finger waging about anti-LGBT laws in places they couldn't point to on a map (im not happy about anti-lgbt shit, im trans bi and poly this shit actually tears me up). Europeans and their settler offshoots boast about the safety of their cities while actively being the cause of the violence elsewhere. This is all to say Europes fucking evil ya'll, which we should all know at this point, but to further it, they aren't really going to stop as that's what its designed to be. these nations aren't going to suddenly produce radical leaders who are going grow morals or empathy and compassion and move us closer to a just world and fight climate change and help develop the global south or anything like that unless some extreme changes happen, not just among the ruling classes, but the everyday person because like i noted, its policies are racist and colonial and imperialistic, but that really only last not just because people aren't willing to guillotine people over it, but because a substantial enough portion of the populace that they care about are happy to be that way or are passive about the suffering of black or brown people or poor people. they will accept the idea the x group of brown people are homophobic or terrorist( never questioning what terrorist even means) and accept that they should constantly be bombed or killed or have their land and resources stolen, which if people cant see the parallels to the largest slaving nations going and invading under the guises of ending slavery and the nations the mainstreamed homophobia across the world and did acts of political terror across the globe going and claiming those are valid reasons to do what they do idk how to help you. your average white American or European is truly no more curious or wanting to actually learn and have dialog about African cultures than isrealis are about Arab culture, nor are they any less willing to throw white supremacist ideas about these peoples onto them. Those last things are not problems i really know how to solve because we are constantly shown even in internet spaces the white supremacist notions of the "other" will animate people into heinous actions, harassment, doxing campaigns, etc without POC even having to say a word against people. Unless White people yes in the monolithic have a substantial cultural and economic shift, you'll keep producing hitlers and leopolds, guilt will not push you, your nations, or your friends and families into a more positive role.

if it could, slavery would have done it, colonialism would have done it, the holocaust etc. you guys have to change, you must . Peace.

[kmc5dee]

Stars are not just distant specks of light in the African night sky but the guiding lights of mythology, culture, and spirituality.

Indigenous astronomical knowledge is recorded among many African tribes like the Dogon people of Mali, who have rich astronomical knowledge and are said to have made ancient observations of the planetary orbits of Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter with her four major moons.

The traditional astronomical knowledge of the San and Nguni people of Southern Africa is recorded to have guided their agriculture irrigation systems and inspired their religious practices.

In many African societies, navigating life with the guidance of stars has birthed a rich reservoir of practical knowledge useful for timekeeping, agriculture, geography, record keeping and history.

As we explore culture and astronomy from the Chokwe perspective, we must state that we see the skies as we are. Our place on the planet determines our seasons, which affects what heavenly bodies we can observe. Perceptions of star patterns are influenced by the latitude of the observer, and from around 10 degrees south, the Chokwe had the geographical placement to observe and intertwine their star knowledge with their practices and identity.

For the Chokwe, stars tell the story of their people, weaving an intricate tale that forms the fabric of their identity. To the Chokwe, the life of a star is like the story of man, starting with birth, coloured by obstacles and triumph, before ending with the honour of death. The night sky has served as a source of wisdom, a symbol of royalty, and a connection to their revered ancestors.

To learn Chokwe astronomy, we must begin with Tangwa, the sun; Ngonde, the moon's phases; Litota, the stars; and Ntongonoshi, the universe in relation to the stars.

Royalty is a central part of Chokwe culture and is reflected in the sky where we see Ndumba, the lion that walks among the Tulamba - the ancestors, who guide his invisible stride in the Milky Way, leaving paw prints of litota in his path. The Chokwe people refer to the Milky Way as the Mulawiji or the Resting River, and it is used primarily as a star calendar and a compass. This shows an intimate knowledge of the skies as the orientation of the Milky Way changes considerably over the course of the year. Chokwe diviners call the Milky Way the Mulalankungu, which means the King's Road. Nkungu is the name of the great, ancient Chokwe king, and the term refers to him. The Milky Way is a significant part of divination stories, and the diviner's basket, or Ngombo, has objects that represent the stars that the diviner uses as symbols for interpretation.

We are also introduced to Tutumwe Twa Mwanangana, which means 'Child of Wisdom' or 'Sending a Message to the Lord of the Land'. This constellation is depicted as four stars displaying a running, sweating messenger sent to announce the arrival of Mwenga, the new wife represented by the morning star, Venus. We see him spanning across four stars encapsulated in the three constellations of Bootes, Coronae Borealis and Herculis. The four stars, Alphecca, his head; Coronae Borealis accentuating the curve of his powerful hips as he runs; Herculis is his leg extended behind him and in his outstretched hand, Arcturus, the bright message of wisdom.

The beauty of Chokwe cosmology is endless, with serendipitous parallels to Western astronomy. For example, the hunter seen in Orion's Belt is also seen as a hunter by the Chokwe, and they call it Tujita Jita, symbolically interpreted as 'go to fight and always win'. Interestingly, for the Chokwe, the hunter is much closer to his dog in the constellation than in Greek and Egyptian mythology, where the dogs are in separate Canis Minor and Major constellations. Tujilika spans across three modern constellations of Triangulum Australe, Circinus and Centaurus. The symbolic meaning of Tujikila to the Chokwe people is 'the children are protecting you.'

The Nkungu – The Southern Cross represents the ancestors' bones shown by the four brightest stars connected in a cross, and this constellation guides the Mukanda, a circumcision initiation ceremony practised by the Chokwe.

The Seven Sisters, or The Pleiades, are Van Ava Nkungulwila, a lion's claws. Nkungulwila refers to the Nkungu clan and its people, and just as they are together on earth, they are together in the heavens, forming a relationship between heaven, earth, life, and death. The Chokwe see the heavens as their ancestors' home; in their cosmology, when people die, they are reborn in the lion's claws – The Seven Sisters. Considering this belief, it is fascinating to note that astronomers have recognised that this constellation is a star factory where new stars are created as the interstellar gas cloud contracts under the force of gravity. There are reddish stars within the constellation that astronomers recognise as dying stars in a supernova, which the Chokwe recognise as the Nalindele; a star whose season is over and is waning; this story is told in relation to an old wife.

Ancient Chokwe star lore, steeped in symbolism and cultural significance, aligns intriguingly with Western scientific discoveries. It's a reminder that despite diverse perspectives, our shared celestial heritage connects us all.

Modern Zambian society is embracing its traditional star knowledge in exciting ways. Young Zambians blend age-old wisdom with contemporary science and technology, forging a path towards the stars. A brief look can be taken at the enduring legacy of the Zambia Space Program of Edward Nkoloso, who coined the term Afronauts, which has come to embody a time when Zambians were bold and brave about exploring the wondrous mysteries of the universe.

The stars have a unique way of uniting us all, transcending borders, cultures, and time. Our fascination with the night sky is universal, but it's crucial to stay curious and remember that the cosmos is vast and diverse, just like the cultures it inspires. Whether you're gazing at the stars from the Chokwe heartlands of Northwestern Zambia or the bustling streets of Lusaka, we're all part of a timeless story that stretches beyond the horizon of our understanding. The stars above are the same stars that have guided us since time immemorial, reminding us of our shared journey through the great expanse of the universe.

[aic-african]

Vessel for Serving Beer (Izikhamba), Northern Nguni, 1925, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa

Among the Zulu, potter is a specialized art form practiced by skilled women wo make wares for family use and for sale. Archaeology has revealed ceramic traditions in the region that date to the first century B.C., and Nguni-speaking ancestors of the Zulu are believed to have begun making pottery in the early second millennium A.D. Not surprisingly given its historic importance, pottery has symbolic dimensions that are expressed both covertly and overtly in Zulu culture. According to Zulu mythology, for example, the earth—which is both the resting place of the ancestors and the provider of nourishment for the living—is perceived as feminine. The earth also supplies the clay that women use to make pots. Vessels are made for a variety of domestic needs, including the preparation and serving of food and drink, and many of these purposes have important ritual dimensions. Supreme among them is the brewing and serving of beer. Sorghum beer, called utshwala, has been produced in the Zulu region for at least as long as potter has. It is considered the food of the ancestors, who are drawn to its smell from first brewing to full flower. For this reason, numerous rules and prohibitions guide its making, storing, serving, and drinking. The beverage’s popularity increased in the nineteenth century as crops became more plentiful, and its significance as a social lubricant that could promote solidarity within a community also expanded. Today, homemade beer made from sorghum and other grains continues to be an essential part of Zulu ritual and social life, and ceramic pots have remained the favored container. Zulu potters use a variety of patterns to ornament beer vessels, the textures of which stand in strong contrast to the pots’ highly burnished surfaces. This pot illustrates a widespread decorative technique in which small semicircular indentations are pressed into the clay in tight rows that define a geometric shape or band. Here the marks are crisply executed and inscribe two large triangles extending point-to-point at an angle across the body of the vessel. Gift of Keith Achepohl Size: 21.6 x 26.7 cm (8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Blackened terracotta

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/185691/

[aic-african]

Vessel for Serving Beer (Izikhamba), Northern Nguni, 1925, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa

Among the Zulu, potter is a specialized art form practiced by skilled women wo make wares for family use and for sale. Archaeology has revealed ceramic traditions in the region that date to the first century B.C., and Nguni-speaking ancestors of the Zulu are believed to have begun making pottery in the early second millennium A.D. Not surprisingly given its historic importance, pottery has symbolic dimensions that are expressed both covertly and overtly in Zulu culture. According to Zulu mythology, for example, the earth—which is both the resting place of the ancestors and the provider of nourishment for the living—is perceived as feminine. The earth also supplies the clay that women use to make pots. Vessels are made for a variety of domestic needs, including the preparation and serving of food and drink, and many of these purposes have important ritual dimensions. Supreme among them is the brewing and serving of beer. Sorghum beer, called utshwala, has been produced in the Zulu region for at least as long as potter has. It is considered the food of the ancestors, who are drawn to its smell from first brewing to full flower. For this reason, numerous rules and prohibitions guide its making, storing, serving, and drinking. The beverage’s popularity increased in the nineteenth century as crops became more plentiful, and its significance as a social lubricant that could promote solidarity within a community also expanded. Today, homemade beer made from sorghum and other grains continues to be an essential part of Zulu ritual and social life, and ceramic pots have remained the favored container. Zulu potters use a variety of patterns to ornament beer vessels, the textures of which stand in strong contrast to the pots’ highly burnished surfaces. This pot illustrates a widespread decorative technique in which small semicircular indentations are pressed into the clay in tight rows that define a geometric shape or band. Here the marks are crisply executed and inscribe two large triangles extending point-to-point at an angle across the body of the vessel. Gift of Keith Achepohl Size: 21.6 x 26.7 cm (8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Blackened terracotta

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/185691/

[aic-african]

Vessel for Serving Beer (Izikhamba), Northern Nguni, 1925, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa

Among the Zulu, potter is a specialized art form practiced by skilled women wo make wares for family use and for sale. Archaeology has revealed ceramic traditions in the region that date to the first century B.C., and Nguni-speaking ancestors of the Zulu are believed to have begun making pottery in the early second millennium A.D. Not surprisingly given its historic importance, pottery has symbolic dimensions that are expressed both covertly and overtly in Zulu culture. According to Zulu mythology, for example, the earth—which is both the resting place of the ancestors and the provider of nourishment for the living—is perceived as feminine. The earth also supplies the clay that women use to make pots. Vessels are made for a variety of domestic needs, including the preparation and serving of food and drink, and many of these purposes have important ritual dimensions. Supreme among them is the brewing and serving of beer. Sorghum beer, called utshwala, has been produced in the Zulu region for at least as long as potter has. It is considered the food of the ancestors, who are drawn to its smell from first brewing to full flower. For this reason, numerous rules and prohibitions guide its making, storing, serving, and drinking. The beverage’s popularity increased in the nineteenth century as crops became more plentiful, and its significance as a social lubricant that could promote solidarity within a community also expanded. Today, homemade beer made from sorghum and other grains continues to be an essential part of Zulu ritual and social life, and ceramic pots have remained the favored container. Zulu potters use a variety of patterns to ornament beer vessels, the textures of which stand in strong contrast to the pots’ highly burnished surfaces. This pot illustrates a widespread decorative technique in which small semicircular indentations are pressed into the clay in tight rows that define a geometric shape or band. Here the marks are crisply executed and inscribe two large triangles extending point-to-point at an angle across the body of the vessel. Gift of Keith Achepohl Size: 21.6 x 26.7 cm (8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Blackened terracotta

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/185691/

[aic-african]

Vessel for Serving Beer (Izikhamba), Northern Nguni, 1925, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa

Among the Zulu, potter is a specialized art form practiced by skilled women wo make wares for family use and for sale. Archaeology has revealed ceramic traditions in the region that date to the first century B.C., and Nguni-speaking ancestors of the Zulu are believed to have begun making pottery in the early second millennium A.D. Not surprisingly given its historic importance, pottery has symbolic dimensions that are expressed both covertly and overtly in Zulu culture. According to Zulu mythology, for example, the earth—which is both the resting place of the ancestors and the provider of nourishment for the living—is perceived as feminine. The earth also supplies the clay that women use to make pots. Vessels are made for a variety of domestic needs, including the preparation and serving of food and drink, and many of these purposes have important ritual dimensions. Supreme among them is the brewing and serving of beer. Sorghum beer, called utshwala, has been produced in the Zulu region for at least as long as potter has. It is considered the food of the ancestors, who are drawn to its smell from first brewing to full flower. For this reason, numerous rules and prohibitions guide its making, storing, serving, and drinking. The beverage’s popularity increased in the nineteenth century as crops became more plentiful, and its significance as a social lubricant that could promote solidarity within a community also expanded. Today, homemade beer made from sorghum and other grains continues to be an essential part of Zulu ritual and social life, and ceramic pots have remained the favored container. Zulu potters use a variety of patterns to ornament beer vessels, the textures of which stand in strong contrast to the pots’ highly burnished surfaces. This pot illustrates a widespread decorative technique in which small semicircular indentations are pressed into the clay in tight rows that define a geometric shape or band. Here the marks are crisply executed and inscribe two large triangles extending point-to-point at an angle across the body of the vessel. Gift of Keith Achepohl Size: 21.6 x 26.7 cm (8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Blackened terracotta

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/185691/

[aic-african]

Vessel for Serving Beer (Izikhamba), Northern Nguni, 1925, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa

Among the Zulu, potter is a specialized art form practiced by skilled women wo make wares for family use and for sale. Archaeology has revealed ceramic traditions in the region that date to the first century B.C., and Nguni-speaking ancestors of the Zulu are believed to have begun making pottery in the early second millennium A.D. Not surprisingly given its historic importance, pottery has symbolic dimensions that are expressed both covertly and overtly in Zulu culture. According to Zulu mythology, for example, the earth—which is both the resting place of the ancestors and the provider of nourishment for the living—is perceived as feminine. The earth also supplies the clay that women use to make pots. Vessels are made for a variety of domestic needs, including the preparation and serving of food and drink, and many of these purposes have important ritual dimensions. Supreme among them is the brewing and serving of beer. Sorghum beer, called utshwala, has been produced in the Zulu region for at least as long as potter has. It is considered the food of the ancestors, who are drawn to its smell from first brewing to full flower. For this reason, numerous rules and prohibitions guide its making, storing, serving, and drinking. The beverage’s popularity increased in the nineteenth century as crops became more plentiful, and its significance as a social lubricant that could promote solidarity within a community also expanded. Today, homemade beer made from sorghum and other grains continues to be an essential part of Zulu ritual and social life, and ceramic pots have remained the favored container. Zulu potters use a variety of patterns to ornament beer vessels, the textures of which stand in strong contrast to the pots’ highly burnished surfaces. This pot illustrates a widespread decorative technique in which small semicircular indentations are pressed into the clay in tight rows that define a geometric shape or band. Here the marks are crisply executed and inscribe two large triangles extending point-to-point at an angle across the body of the vessel. Gift of Keith Achepohl Size: 21.6 x 26.7 cm (8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Blackened terracotta

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/185691/

[aic-african]

Vessel for Serving Beer (Izikhamba), Northern Nguni, 1925, Art Institute of Chicago: Arts of Africa

Among the Zulu, potter is a specialized art form practiced by skilled women wo make wares for family use and for sale. Archaeology has revealed ceramic traditions in the region that date to the first century B.C., and Nguni-speaking ancestors of the Zulu are believed to have begun making pottery in the early second millennium A.D. Not surprisingly given its historic importance, pottery has symbolic dimensions that are expressed both covertly and overtly in Zulu culture. According to Zulu mythology, for example, the earth—which is both the resting place of the ancestors and the provider of nourishment for the living—is perceived as feminine. The earth also supplies the clay that women use to make pots. Vessels are made for a variety of domestic needs, including the preparation and serving of food and drink, and many of these purposes have important ritual dimensions. Supreme among them is the brewing and serving of beer. Sorghum beer, called utshwala, has been produced in the Zulu region for at least as long as potter has. It is considered the food of the ancestors, who are drawn to its smell from first brewing to full flower. For this reason, numerous rules and prohibitions guide its making, storing, serving, and drinking. The beverage’s popularity increased in the nineteenth century as crops became more plentiful, and its significance as a social lubricant that could promote solidarity within a community also expanded. Today, homemade beer made from sorghum and other grains continues to be an essential part of Zulu ritual and social life, and ceramic pots have remained the favored container. Zulu potters use a variety of patterns to ornament beer vessels, the textures of which stand in strong contrast to the pots’ highly burnished surfaces. This pot illustrates a widespread decorative technique in which small semicircular indentations are pressed into the clay in tight rows that define a geometric shape or band. Here the marks are crisply executed and inscribe two large triangles extending point-to-point at an angle across the body of the vessel. Gift of Keith Achepohl Size: 21.6 x 26.7 cm (8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Blackened terracotta

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/185691/