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More correctly the amaNdebele. Sometimes referred to as the Mapocha, or Mapogga, a sub-grouping concentrated around the Preoria/ Tshwane area (Berman 1983:305). In the sixteenth century, the southern Ndebele were a splinter group which broke away from the southward migration of the Nguni people who went on to establish the Zulu empire. The southern Ndebele moved into the savannah grassland plateaus of the Transvaal Highveld where they co-existed with the neighbouring Sotho-Tswana from whom they were to adopt and adapt the courtyard architecture of these settlements. The evolution of the painting styles is closely linked to the episodes of conflict, subjugation and resistance of the Ndebele people. The emergence of a distinct Ndebele identity has its origins as a result of the Ndebele defeat at the hands of the Boers of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR, Transvaal Republic (1854-1902) in 1883, the resultant dislocation of the Ndebele peoples, their subsequent indenture and restrictions on their freedom of movement. The painting of walls was traditionally and customarily the task of the women. In the early 1940s the Ndebele found themselves servants to white landlord farmers and domestic servants to urban households. Their labour presented the circumstances whereby they developed their artistic expression centred around their homes, affirming their identity especially as the painting and repainting of houses occurred with episodes of rites of passage such as initiation of their sons or marriage of their daughters. In the 1950s these cultural practices attracted the attention of architectural academics, for example Prof Att MEIRING as Head of Department at the Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria, housing researchers such as Barrie BIERMANN and Betty SPENCE of the National Building Research Institute such as Constance Stuart (Larrabee), Alan Yates and Dotman Pretorius and architects such as Norman EATON, Robert Cole BOWEN, and attracted students from father afield to Pretoria such as Fred DU TOIT, then studying architecture at the University of Cape Town. These visits led to documentation and publication in the art and architectural journals of the day. Chipkin (2008:379) reminisces on those they influenced: There was a third category of architects like Wim SWAAN and Maurice KAPLAN (a neighbour of Wibo ZWART) who were seduced not only by Brazil but by the pictorial qualities of indigenous homesteads, as re-discovered by Barrie BIERMANN and Betty SPENCE in their seminal portrayal of Ndebele architecture in the Architectural Review (1954), ... Ironically, this interest coincided with the hardening of apartheid policy and implementation of the Group Areas Act. These people were removed from their settlements and forcibly relocated into 'Homelands', the Ndebele being designated their own of 'KwaNdebele'. Contrary to some expectation, the wall art continued to be practiced here, the government of the day even cynically donating paint for the 'decoration' of buildings. However the spacial qualities of Ndebele traditional homesteads remained both an intrigue and inspiration to local architects, as is to be found in the home and work of Peter RICH. The advent of full democracy in 1994 brought with it a change in impetus of the painting traditions, the art entering the public realm as suitable expression of 'South Africanness'. It has also been commercialised, such as the painting by Ester MAHLANGU of a BMW car. That has also brought her fame and acknowledgement in her own right. In the linked online article the different styles of house painting is discussed: Rethinking the future: There are different styles and methods of Ndebele house painting: Bathonga:The Bathonga style is the best–known and basic type. This painting is painted entirely in red, white and black colours. The base coat of these paintings is a solid black (made from mixing wood ashes with cow dung). Then the inside of the house (the ceiling) is painted white. Finally individual details like animals, people and flowers are added to give expression to the meaning of that specific house’s design. These paintings come in various sizes; sometimes they are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet [0,9 meter by 0,9 meter], but sometimes they can be much larger than this and cover an entire wall. Tarai: Shanga: Metshi: Berman has an entry on their artistic style and traditions, influences and various institutional efforts at their preservation and archiving of the record (Berman 1983:305-306). References
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