COLOUR has symbolic meaning in African culture and each colour conveys peculiar information when worn or displayed at significant places or situations.
Black is a symbolic colour for funerals in almost all parts of Africa.
It is the official mourning cloth at funerals.
The colour white is a symbol of purity and joy, which is usually worn at weddings.
In Zimbabwe the colour red was synonymous with the liberation struggle hence the colour red on the National Flag symbolises the bloodshed during the liberation struggle.
A red cloth at one’s homestead gate invokes sad feelings and conjures up sad emotions as it means people are mourning a departed loved one.
Therefore, all respect accorded to the dead by the living should be accorded.
It means when passing where there is a funeral you remove your hat, move or drive slowly or don’t make noise.
Red has also become synonymous with danger and blood.
According to some elders who took part in the liberation struggle, a red cloth was tied at the gate where there were political meetings.
The use of the red cloth according to some elders, started during the peak of the struggle when liberation war fighters started infiltrating towns and urban areas. It became evident that the masses use some form of disguise to protect the fighters, therefore in order to make sure that white Rhodesians and their spies kept away from the meetings, a red cloth was tied at a gate where the meetings were held and often disguised as funeral wakes.
The repulsion of Rhodesian soldiers heightened when the Smith regime intensified patrols in urban areas and often imposed curfews as a way of curtailing guerrilla infiltration into towns and urban areas.
It became very difficult for war collaborators to communicate with the liberation fighters.
Therefore a way was devised to ensure less interference with whatever activities blacks were having in their suburbs.
Led by the spirit of Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi, blacks were increasingly resisting white rule and therefore had to device ways to make sure that the struggle continued.
However, elders say when whites got wind that what was happening at these gatherings with red cloths at gates were actually political meetings, they started hunting down the ring leaders.
This eventually saw a number of war collaborators getting arrested and sent to detention centres, but by then the idea of putting red cloths at funeral wakes had gained popularity that even when white soldiers dared to raid these meetings, they were often confronted with real funeral wakes and it eventually dampened their spirits and they let the practice persist.
Meanwhile, the political meetings continued at these ‘funeral wakes’ as more young people made last minute journeys to the liberation war fronts, while some did not have the opportunities of firing a gun at the war front, they were content that at least these meetings yielded better results.
To date, funeral wakes are respected in Zimbabwe and a red cloth is tied strategically on the gate.
Elders say this tradition has been accepted by different tribes in the country as a symbol of resistance against white rule.
Prior to the liberation struggle, different tribes used different ways to show that there was a funeral wake, the most common among tribes in Northern Zimbabwe were black or blue clothes.
Some tribes held night vigils and parties to celebrate someone’s death.
Sentinels with spears were posted at the gate where there is a funeral wake, while among the BaTonga a blue cloth was tied on a long pole in the middle of the homestead where there was a funeral wake.
Two strong men are stationed at the entrance of the homestead beating two big funeral drums until the funeral was over, this practice was meant to inform members of the community that someone had passed on.
However, today although people mourn their departed differently, a red cloth is placed at the entrance to warn people that there is a funeral.
Historically in the mid-19th century, red became the colour of a new political and social movement, socialism.
It became the colour of the workers’ movement, of the French Revolution of 1848, of the Paris Commune in 1870, and of socialist parties across Europe.
In the 20th century, red was the colour of revolution; it was the colour of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and of the Chinese Revolution of 1949, and later of the Cultural Revolution.
Red was the colour of Communist parties from Eastern Europe to Cuba to Vietnam.
In Christianity, it represented the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs; in 1295 it became the colour worn by Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church.
Merchants and ordinary people wore clothing dyed with madder at celebrations.
Nobles and merchants wore the more intense red made with Kermes.
In the 16th century, Spanish merchants began to import cochineal into Europe, which made an even more brilliant red; it became the fashion colour of the aristocracy.
The red colour is a spiritual colour and has a very powerful religious significance. It is the colour of the cloth used to adorn the table in the shrine.
For example, in Igbo land, the Benins and Yorubas in Nigeria, the red colour is worn by chief priest of the local shrine whenever he is at the shrine perfuming his duty or at the King’s palace or any public place where he is called up to perform rituals or sacrifices to the gods for one purpose or the other.
This colour is significantly marked out for the Eze muo or Dibia, ‘the spiritual king or the native doctor’ respectively.
Red also played an important role in the culture of Imperial China.
In Chinese philosophy, red represented fire, one of the five elements, during the Zhou, Han, Jin, Song and Ming Dynasties, red was considered a noble colour, and it was featured in all court ceremonies, from coronations to sacrificial offerings, and weddings.
The gates of imperial palaces were usually painted red.
Chinese artisans used the mineral cinnabar to produce the famous vermilion or ‘Chinese red’ colour of Chinese lacquer ware.
During the French Revolution, some of the revolutionaries began to wear a red Phrygian cap, or liberty cap, modeled after the caps worn by freed slaves in Ancient Rome, and to carry red flags.