In most African cultures, women are required to get married when they come of age. Marriage was really emphasized on to the extent that deliberate preparations are made in advance, even as early as a girl is born.
Just like in Uganda, the Ndebele community of Southern Africa would teach the girls everything they need to know about marriages. Only, for them, the lessons are conducted weeks before the wedding, with the bride hidden away in a practice referred to as Bukhazi.
In the old days parents were responsible for choosing a wife for their sons. A specific son must have returned from an initiatio
n school before the marriage Labola could be paid. The value of the bride’s labola is calculated by the number of cows given to the bride’s parents by the groom.
Before a woman is married a bukhazi is performed; the bride to be goes into a smaller room/hut for a week before the wedding and the elder women in the community coach her about her role as a wife and her duties as a married woman within the village. The culture of the Ndebele people is unique, especially with regard to their colourful and rich mural paintings. Mural painting has been passed on from generation to generation from mother to daughter.
Each and every woman has her own style, meaning and knowledge base about the different things which they use in their lives, which are depicted on the walls e.g a razor blade, a house, a cellphone.
E
verything has a meaning and an importance in the eyes of the artist. The “Ndebele Flower” symbolises a Ndebele Women’s fertility. The razor blade pattern is used extensively as it is used in traditional hair shavings, beadwork, household tasks and traditional ceremonies.
