The people of the Ndebele tribe live in
Southern Africa.
The Ndebele tribe is most well-known for their painted homes, beaded dolls,
and their beautiful use of color in both. To begin, my students learned about the
Ndebele's traditional painted homes.
Students first learned the real reasons why the Ndebele people paint their homes.
It's natural to see the painted homes
for their visual aesthetic; the symbols and complex expressionistic designs
with bold, beautiful coloring are striking against the stark surroundings of
South
Africa, but the exterior and interior walls
of each home are painted to also relay secret messages that can only be
distinguished by other Ndebele people.
The
painted symbols and expressions communicate personal prayers, self-identification,
values, emotions, and marriage.
The
women of the Ndebele are accountable for carrying on the tradition of painting
the homes; how well the home is painted and kept up is representative of how
good a wife and mother the female is.
To paint the homes, women first begin with whitewashing the walls.
Next, they apply a thick black outline of their
distinctive design.
After the outline is
dry, five main colors are used: red, yellow (gold), blue, green, and pink.
The secret messages are sent through the color
combinations applied to the walls.
Over
time, the traditional techniques of painting has adapted and modernized.
In present day, the women of the Ndeblele use
bundled twigs with feathers as brushes to apply the paint, rather then using
their fingers as in the past. Advancements in the tools used have allowed the
patterns and designs to grow in size and in complexity, making the homes today
even more remarkable and impacting.
After learning about the painted homes of the Ndebele people, my students
could not wait to learn about their dolls the following week.
They were surprised to hear that the Linga
Koba dolls hold significant ritual importance in the lives of the Ndebele
people and are not used for amusement purposes of a child.
The dolls are handmade with beads, fiber, and
thread.
It takes countless hours to
construct each doll and they are cherished being passed on from generation to
generation.
During courtship, a suitor
places a doll outside a young woman’s hut, representing his intention to
propose marriage.
While preparing for
the marriage the women then cares for the doll, which one day will be passed on
to her own daughter.
My students were touched by the values and traditions they learned the
Ndebele people preserve.
They were
impressed by the strong community bond of the Ndebele people and the amount of time
and importance they place on carrying on traditions of their ancestors to each
generation.
I asked at this point if
anyone had specific traditions that had been passed on in their own
family.
Many sadly did not have any
personal examples.
With how many of my
students were unable to share a specific example we briefly discussed common
traditions in
America.
Students mentioned passing on specific pieces
of jewelry and clothing, along with figurines and special collections.
After writing their ideas down in a “Thinking
Map” I had the students write a sentence on one tradition they thought they
would enjoy passing on to family in their future.
With limited resources creating actual dolls was not practical this year,
but the students drew their own doll with bold black outlining, bright colors,
and string and beads for hair.
It was a very memorable, successful, engaging lesson that I will definitely
be repeating in the years to come.
My
hope next year is to have the opportunity to create actual dolls with my
students that they could keep or pass on to someone significant in their
lives.
(Citation: I've seen variations of this lesson done on many art blogs, all amazing)
-GRich
Inspired by The Boy With Pink Hair, written by Perez Hilton, my students drew their self-portraits with only one restriction, they were not allowed to color their hair the color it naturally is in life. At first I heard groans, but it didn't take long for them to get inspired; many of them asked, "Do I only get to pick one color or can I make my hair look like a rainbow?".
