IN times of self-reflection, I often wonder how we would address ourselves and interact with our indigenous visual cultural trappings and genealogical heirlooms and objects such as zvigaro, tsvimbo, mitsago and clothing, in these post-colonial times, when most of us no longer know or care what these were.
This also included general manners and etiquette.
This article is an introduction to the investigation of how Western-designed dress, furniture, heirlooms, mannerisms and etiquette have modified and eventually expunged our traditional African-centred values, traditions and decorum.
Not only Zimbabwean, but African traditional notions of identity, beliefs and ancestries, which were deeply imbedded in visual cultural trappings and heirlooms are fast disappearing.
Archival photographic images of our pan-African leaders from the late 1950s and 1960s often portray them with various distinguishing insignia, sceptres of power, walking sticks, fly whisks and even battle axes.
Former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi was customarily seen holding an elegant fly whisk known as rungu, which he referred to as his fimbo ya nyayo – Swahili for ‘staff of footsteps’.
A traditional knobkerrie is an important trapping for elders and leaders in countries in Southern Africa.
It is depicted on the current South African and Republic of Ciskei Coat-of-Arms.
A knobkerrie also appeared on the flag and current Coat-of-Arms of Lesotho.
These traditional trappings were symbols of pride, authority, strength, identity and empowerment.
The late Vice-President of Zimbabwe, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo was well-known for holding his traditional wooden tsvimbo (sceptre) and donning his traditional animal skin hat as symbols of his leadership status.
Indigenous Zimbabweans were known to combine artistic and functional traditions that identified their cognitive culture and hierarchical status.
Decorative designs etched in indigenous regalia were repositories of their intangible heritage, each with a rich specific meaning and associated histories.
Other items of material culture in traditional homesteads were much more than utilitarian.
Some carried decorative symbolic designs that communicated the provenance of the artefact.
For a long time, indigenous design has responded to the lifestyle of people.
However, the greatest change to African material culture took place after colonisation.
The introduction of Western institutions by Christian missionaries and other colonial agencies was premeditated to undermine and destroy many aspects of our indigenous knowledge and socio-cultural structures and to pave way for their replacement.
Disparaging our material culture was one of the main strategies used by colonial missionaries to disempower the indigenous people.
The Western assault on our traditional knowledge also applied to the replacement of local languages with foreign languages because with it came the removal of indigenous design knowledge of artefacts.
By imposing imported Western trappings on indigenous societies, colonialism introduced a cultural schizophrenia.
Indigenous people in this schizophrenic society no longer value their traditional heirlooms, nor know how to dress, sit, eat, respect and address each other, including our elders in society.
Our trappings went with our fundamental values and customs; laid down by the progenitors of our culture as part of the Madzimbahwe philosophy of life which reflected the life and thought structure of the people.
They encapsulated a wide spectrum of cultural beliefs and decorum.
They included; wisdom and foolishness, human nature, friendship and enmity, fortune and misfortune, honesty and dishonesty, domestic affairs, authority, unity, warnings, hospitality and humility and general advice on day-to-day human interactions; all bound together by a philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu.
By introducing, imposing and enforcing Western trappings, colonialism also imposed their foreign mannerisms on the people of Zimbabwe, thus instilling in us different ways of conducting ourselves socially and even choreographing our ways of greeting, eating, standing, sitting and consequently of thinking.
For instance, the Shona traditional stools were designed and crafted at an angle which maintained an erect and healthy body posture that was regulated by the design of the object.
Modern colonial furniture has removed our indigenous memory of sitting.
In fact, it has colonised our body posture!
Material domestic trappings that were intended for a different society with a different belief and outlook have now dominated our space and memory.
Societies and cultures should be permitted to evolve in their own space, pace and time.
Recovering our memory through design, visual cultural material, religious and ceremonial trappings requires not only our artists and designers, but society as a whole, to investigate and de-colonise our inherited artefacts, trappings, cloths, manners and other significant expressions of our philosophy of life.
The convergence of culture with art and design is a traditional Zimbabwean philosophy.
Hence this ethos has the potential to communicate an exclusive cultural perspective to create better standards of living and appreciation to build an awareness of things beyond the mundane in our existence.
Zimbabwean design was conceptual; its strength was in the fact that it embodied the history of our progenitors; illustrating an attachment and commitment to the land, the people and the culture.
It embodied the basic synergy of aesthetics and functionality.
The mbira, tsvimbo, mitsago (headrest) and other objects of antiquity and heritage were design artworks that communicated and served a socio-cultural purpose, interactive within society.
The perfection and dedication of traditional Zimbabwean craftspeople that made these objects close to machine precision, created a classical age for Zimbabwean design.
The thought, time, detail, conceptualisation and perfection of the object were part of the mandate for the indigenous designers.
They created visual culture objects and genealogical heirlooms from the heart of the community with authenticity, integrity, compassion and longevity in mind, due to the conceptualisation, consensual communal thought, skill, time, detail and perfection that characterises their manufacture.
The removal of content, meaning, significance and attachment from Zimbabwe’s cultural heritage and the heirlooms of our ancestry have moreover unhinged the decorum, cultural mannerism, language and even the body language of a people.
Zimbabwe needs to breathe a new life into design.
Our greatest strength is in our custodial heritage.
By not using our traditional artefacts and heirlooms, we have adopted a different language, customs, dress, beliefs and even religion.
When the pride attached to a young girl mastering how to carry a pot precariously balanced on the head is looked upon disdainfully by Western feminist agendas, then Zimbabwe, and Africa as a whole, has lost its identity and knowledge of self and notions of true freedom.
It is time our indigenous rapier of knowledge and experience cuts through the deception of colonial trappings that has rendered our culture insubstantive.
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, lecturer, musician, art critic, practising artist and corporate image consultant. He is also a specialist art consultant, post-colonial scholar, Zimbabwean socio-economic analyst and researcher.