NDEBELE

Let's take a short visit to South of Africa and focus on the Ndebele people for a while.
The Ndebele are a Bantu group of people who are part of the larger Nguni ethnic group. They are divided into two major groups.
1. Northern Ndebele people
2. Southern Ndebele people
One of the factors that separates them is their language. The language spoken by the Southern Ndebele People slightly differs from that spoken by the Northern Ndebele people. Generally they are found in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

I got to know about these people during one of my Architectural design classes. What struck my CRAZY lecturer (He is really cray cray!) about these people was their art, which is presented on the walls of their homes, their garments, their jewellery and headdresses.

Wall art.

Girl's panel.

The Ndebele are such colourful people. Their ability to use lines to form simple shapes and eventually transform them into complex shapes is FASCINATING! What's more, is that their art was and I guess still is, an important part of communication among them. Their art is very much evident on the walls of their houses. Each woman is responsible for the painting of the outside gates, front walls, side walls, and usually the interior of her home.

I honestly do not know what the various combinations of shapes and colours by the ndebele mean but I did try to come up with a few pieces.

This one was actually my assignment.

This....uum I got bored one afternoon so I tried something almost similar to the previous one.

More of Ndebele art.

Some bracelets you may fancy.

They even make their own dolls!!

If you want to know more, kindly follow THIS link and THIS other link as well.

For those who have heard me say 'Ndebele this, Ndebele that' now you know what I was talking about!