Cultural heritage in the work of two Xhosa-speaking ceramic artists.

As Xhosa-speaking artists working with clay (1) we, Gcinikhaya Dase and Siziwe Sotewu (Fig. 1), are developing a visual narrative style to reflect upon our lived experience and create sequential artworks expressing ideas about aspects of our cultural heritage (2) in contemporary South Africa. We focus on a regional aspect of southern African culture to look for and comment upon its intrinsic value, and do not intend an essentialization (3) or valorization of Xhosa-speakers' experiences and dilemmas at the expense of South Africans from differing backgrounds. We are not sitting back feeling satisfied, but have made enquiries into own backgrounds, which indeed are part of a greater social picture, and thereby have become engaged in looking for what Achille Mbembe calls "a transformative relation with our past as a condition sine qua non of our control over our own future" (Holler 2002:2).

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We were both born in the Eastern Cape and both speak Xhosa, and we also share a hope that by bringing our thoughts and artworks into a public arena--through exhibitions with accompanying text, (4) by being available for discussions, and now by writing this article--ordinary people may be encouraged to express their own ideas about identity and aspects of what goes into making individuals who they are.

Our focus on aspects of Xhosa-speakers' cultural heritage by no means constitutes a yearning for lost roots. We are part of contemporary society and cannot turn back the clock, nor are our visual and verbal statements neutral acts. By publicly claiming aspects of South African life and commenting on them, we raise historically disempowered voices and speak (Spivak 1988), thereby becoming part of an ongoing political movement toward social transformation based on equality and exchange of knowledge as one way of redressing past misunderstandings, misrepresentations, and marginalizations that took place in our country.

As such, after the oppression of apartheid and historical "colonization"--as "a negative entity" (Mbembe 2001:189)--we now actively engage with aspects of our social backgrounds and associated indigenous knowledge systems (5) as part of a complex national process of claiming newly liberated public debate-space for ideas on practices, technology, and ways of thinking that previously were sometimes very private, sometimes ignored, sometimes misunderstood, and largely not written about by practitioners familiar with their intimate nuance and detail.

We think of ourselves as independent individuals in the world rather than circumscribing our identity exclusively to collective abstractions such as "African" or "Xhosa-speaking South Africans" Yet our shared language is a foundation of closeness that is further enhanced by our interest in each other's social background. Cultural heritage hinges to an extent on language-links-that-bind, so in this article we will move from some general considerations of the roles played by language in the formation of our own identity to some conceptualizations of culture that are relevant to transformation in South Africa, and then introduce our own artworks/ micro-narratives, which comment upon aspects of personal concern. Thereafter, we ask whether local visual artists/arts have a place in what Van Robbroeck calls "the vastly arrogant and Eurocentric 'international' high art arena" (2004:47).

The majority of persons resident in the Eastern Cape speak Xhosa as a first language, but neither of us claims to represent all Xhosas, because individual beliefs and practices vary. We are proud to note that former South African president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela grew up in the Eastern Cape and is himself a Xhosa-speaker. Xhosas are part of what are termed Nguni people, who "can be divided into a northern group--the Zulu and Swazi people--and a southern group, which is made up of amaBaca, amaBomvana, amaGcaleka, amaMfengu, amaMpondomise, amaMpondo, abeSotho and abeThembu," this southern group being "the Xhosa nation" (Mandela 1995:4; see Feely 1987, Hammond-Tooke 1981, Hunter 1979, Kuckertz 1990, Peires 1989, 2003, Prins and Granger 1993, and Soga 1930 for more background).

Differences in language usage between these groups and between individuals abound, yet we are deeply linked by shared understandings. (6) Our speech, which involves many clicking sounds, (7) also differentiates us from northern Nguni peoples and other language groups around the world. Thus our Xhosa language and its associated thought processes, despite our internal differences, serves as a significant marker of our identity. Daniel Bell suggests that language is expressive "of a certain way of seeing things, experiencing and feeling, determinant of particular outlooks on life" (1993:158-9), and thus, to the extent to which these aspects become loaded into language, (8) this is another commonality that contributes to our identities.

A challenge for us has been to gather together our local experiences and present them to a more international audience utilizing a combination of three-dimensional form and English text without losing our uniqueness. Using artwork and text complimentarily helps communication because visual art is another important cornerstone of our cultural heritage, and thus contributes to recording and understanding aspects of our changing identity. By taking and using clay we make reference to ceramicists in our deep past, as well as to many southern African and international contemporaries who work with clay as their medium of choice.

We take raw earth, pound it, add water for correct consistency, shape ideas, allow air to circulate and dry the works, add coloring agents if desired, fire, then place these works in private and public places for use, comment, and consideration. Thus, utilizing elements of earth, water, wind, and fire combined with variations on processes established by our earliest artistically inclined ancestors, we express creative urges just as vital then as now, but our present project has added to material culture in a specific way by actively tracing as well as commenting upon important aspects of our lives as both Xhosa speakers and global dwellers.

Our drive to explore aspects of our own culture and place them in a global context is partly clarified by Homi Bhabha, who characterizes the interrogation of "subjectivity" and "identity" as a step--via acknowledging "specificities and contingencies of the historical 'causes' of domination and discrimination"--toward the realization of an "aspiration to equality without equalisation." Yet Bhabha further notes that such an approach is "open to instability" because "difference" remains central and this way of thinking requires "a continual adjustment of advantage and disadvantage, from a vantage point of judgement whose scales must be continually calibrated" (Bhabha 2003).

So, how do we identify ourselves as global players with a specific cultural background, engaged in creative acts through the medium of fired clay? Etienne Balibar (1994:56) suggests "equality ... [as] the complementarity and reciprocity of singularities." Such an emphasis does not, however, negate a sense of shared culture/s based on aspects of what Claude Levi-Strauss terms "symbolic systems" including "language ... matrimonial rules ... economic relations, art, science, religion" (Levi-Strauss 1987, cited in Gairola 2002). Gairola calls these factors "ideological constraints of society" resulting in "different identities in different contexts" contributed to by "ways in which others construct us" (2002). In this vein, W.J.T. Mitchell attributes to Bhabha's "Location of culture" (1994) a conclusion that "cultures must be understood as complex intersections of multiple places, historical temporalities, and subject positions" (Mitchell 1995). When viewed in this light, culture gives us a foundation, however unsteady and subject to change, for regarding ourselves as individuals who also share aspects of collectivities. We thus contribute to social modifications by participating--even in a small way--in South African transformation by expressing experience without intending to impose ideology.

Such big-picture thoughts are all very well, yet do not make it any easier to live in an often harsh environment, in which our constitution is laudable but often far removed from actual events. Factors like poverty, homelessness, unemployment, crime, unequal access to quality education and medical attention, as well as the absence of basic services such as clean water and sanitation are often a daily reality rather than a distant problem. Previous editions of African Arts, especially the Winter 2004 issue, have featured extensive reflection and comment on the sociopolitical contextualization of visual arts in South Africa (see Boram-Hayes 2005; Dhlomo and Godby 2004; Klopper 2004; Klopper and Godby 2004; Ntuli 2004; Rovine 2004; Schmahmann 2005; and Van Robbroeck 2004), so it seems appropriate at this point to move our focus closer to home, to specific issues and our artworks.

The Eastern Cape Province is one of the poorest and most economically underdeveloped regions of South Africa (Daily Dispatch 2005:12), and social issues feature frequently in works by other young artists in our region. For instance, Bitter or Sweet, Life Goes On by Siyabonga Ntlaninge (Fig. 2) is about extensive hardship experienced while he was growing up in a rural area under the strictures of a harsh stepmother. Siphe Potelwa has expressed his worry about a bleak future in Frustration (Fig. 3), and Litha Ncokazi celebrated the nurturing and formative role his maternal grandmother played on his life in Joy (Fig. 4).

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These works provide a brief backdrop to our series, Ukuthwalwa: Xhosa Traditional Act of Abduction, with Intention to Marry (2001) by Siziwe Sotewu and Imbeleko: Introducing a Young Xhosa Child to Society and Ancestors (2003) by Gcinikhaya Dase. We have positioned ourselves slightly differently from Ntlaninge, Potelwa, and Ncokazi by focusing on aspects of cultural practice handed down by our forebears. Despite being good friends, we are by no means in full agreement with each other about daily living best practices with regard to such cultural heritage, but respect each other's positions, and in so doing focus on mutual understanding rather than the promotion of arrogant dogma.

SIZIWE SOTEWU

While conceptualizing Ukuthwalwa: Xhosa Traditional Act of Abduction, with Intention to Marry I inevitably took into account the many difficulties I had faced whilst growing up at Mgwali near Stutterheim, which is located in a rural area about one and a half hours' drive inland from East London. In my youth I suffered apartheid-era legally imposed socioeconomic and political disadvantages and also faced hurdles inherent in being female in a strongly patrilineal social environment, which tended to focus on male needs. Descent, for example, is usually traced through the male line, with male domestic authority (Peires 2003:8, 33) unless senior males are completely absent (Kuckertz 1990:161). These anthropological observations are confirmed by my own situation where, lacking brothers, my two sisters and I grew up in an all-female immediate family because my father died when I was very young. My mother is in charge of household and other matters even though my father's brother is a substitute male authority figure and advisor when needed, his availability reinforcing a general understanding that male will is to be respected and obeyed. As a young girl I was under the impression that only males could become "artists" while females engaged in "domestic activities" such as creating clothing, beadwork, woven grass-works, and other items for household use. Now, having a different perception, I see a role for myself as an activist who encourages and teaches other females to become confident and self sufficient artists by using their hands to develop individual visual styles and thereby express own ideas.

More generally, it is known that Xhosa and many other South African women frequently experience vulnerability and adversely discriminatory situations. Zine George writes that it has been reported to the Eastern Cape Gender Commission that women are sometimes "still subjected to sexist and abusive ... customary practices such as ukuthwalwa (marriage without consent) and ungeno (widow being forced to have sex with her brother-in-law ... so she can have children from the same clan)" (2004:11). Modise Kabeli notes that "in the Port Elizabeth (9) area alone 3,329 cases of crimes against women and children had been reported" during the first six months of 2005 (2005:3).

Despite such occurrences, South Africa has a post-1994 record of seeking and actively promoting gender equity and mutual respect. Progress is evidenced by extensive media coverage of matters relating to gender awareness and male abuse of women and children, as well as by the recent appointment of Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka as deputy president of the country. Likewise, Ms. Balindlela is the premier of the Eastern Cape, and Ms. Muthwa and Ms. Jajula are respectively provincial director general and provincial MEC for health. Currently approximately 30% of national government ministers are women.

Despite such public indicators of change, however, our society remains riddled with neglect and abuse of women, leading commentators such as Achille Mbembe to warn of a "dark brew of South African culture ... [with] its deeply held phallocratic ethos" (2006:20). Ongoing misogyny in South Africa is still very much part of daily life. Rape of women and children, for example, is rampant. The Sunday Times/Sapa (2006:4) stated recently that crime statistics indicate a staggering 151 rapes against women and children reported daily. Not all rapes are reported, so the actual numbers of daily occurrences of this dehumanizing crime are probably many times that number.

The high-profile rape trial of former Deputy President of South Africa Jacob Zuma on 2006 reveals many other examples of devaluation of and disrespect toward women, attitudes probably far more pervasive among South African males than is generally acknowledged. On May 8, 2006, Zuma was declared not guilty of raping a much younger house guest. In attempting to justify what was eventually ruled as consensual sex, Zuma said that his Zulu-speaking culture forbade leaving a woman in a state of arousal, and that his accuser's wearing of revealing clothing sent a message that she was available for sex (Mail & Guardian 2006:30). Citing culture as a reason for abrogating responsibility for one's actions while claiming ostensible rights at the expense of existing wives and family is a lame excuse and a manipulation of heritage, resulting in denigration of women. Disregard for his wives and family, and for safe-sex awareness for all South Africans, was further demonstrated by Zuma's admission that he was aware of the complainant's HIV-positive status and took a shower after intercourse "to minimize the risk of contracting the disease (Aids)" (ibid., p. 30) because they had not used a condom.

The negative impact for women of Zuma's demeaning statements, attitudes, and actions is compounded by his immense popularity--implying widespread approval for his conduct and statements--amongst South Africans, who cheered in their thousands outside the Johannesburg High Court when he was acquitted, and by his subsequent reinstatement as deputy president of the ruling African National Congress Party. A further outcome of this trial is that women who press rape charges in future will know that not only was Zuma's accuser exhaustively pressurized about her sexual history, but also that patriarchy is so strong and potentially so violent that she had to flee the country after the trial in fear of her life.

Rape and women's vulnerability is of direct relevance to the background thinking that led to my Ukuthwalwa artworks. Ukuthwalwa is a form of arranged marriage in which the unsuspecting woman is abducted prior to the marriage; even when her parents consent, it implies the use of force and possibly rape, unless the event comes as a welcome surprise. Ukuthwalwa is by no means the only way of facilitating marriage amongst Xhosa-speaking people and it seems not to occur very often in present times. When it did happen, the event would usually be organized by the respective parents and the groom-to-be, without the prior knowledge or consent of the prospective bride. I was once threatened with ukuthwalwa while on a Church Youth trip away from home. I took the threat very seriously and was afraid.

Many years later I read as account of an ukuthwalwa event that probably took place in the 1930s, as related by Anna Mbobo to Joan Broster (sidebar, p. 69). I had been thinking about why it seems that modern-day marriages so often end in divorce (10) while marriages of previous generations seemed to be more solid, and my reading of Mbobo's ukuthwalwa experience inspired me to focus on this topic. Working in clay, I first depicted the events recounted by Mbobo to Broster, then created some works which consider aspects of traditional Xhosa marriages which do not necessarily begin with ukuthwalwa, and finally compared aspects of such marriages with more modern-day unions based on love/ lust, which often end in divorce. @@ My method of working is usually to start with rough sketches after identifying central symbols, then push my clayworking skills to express my ideas. Working with the softness of clay fills my heart with happiness. All works featured here were thrown on the potter's wheel, then joined, altered, and engraved during the drying process. In a sense, many of the difficulties of working with clay, such as cracks, breakage, and disappointments after firing, are like those of daily living, when one can never perfectly predict what will happen. Despite disappointments, there are moments of great relief and pleasure in what has been achieved.

My series of quite large ceramic works (the average size is about 100cm high x 75cm wide, or 39" x 29") opens with Forced to Marry by Ukuthwalwa (Fig. 5), where I used a metal barrel to symbolize the abducted woman because when I was a child I used to go to the river to collect water in a barrel, which I then pushed home. The victim was pushed away from home like an empty water drum. The wheelbarrow symbolizes that the abducted woman's parents and family pushed her out of the home, and her flat head with tears shows her fear and that she had no option. Then, in Crying (Fig. 6) the abducted woman's arms are lifted in despair that her parents and brothers, represented by the engraved garden tools, have collaborated in this removal from her home instead of treating her as gently as one should treat an egg.

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In Dragged (Fig. 7) the abducted woman is now represented as a shongololo millipede because they curl up when disturbed, in much the same way as the forcibly abducted woman would have curled up physically and emotionally while resisting being carried away. Then, in Struggle (Fig. 8) I depicted the metal barrels placed in every which way in order to show active resistance against being seized and removed. Thereafter, in Laughed At (Fig. 9), I refer to the abducted woman's embarrassment at losing some clothes while resisting. She then tried to cover herself, and is represented here as a goat, which is known to sit and be stubborn when it is pulled. Laughing men who mocked her discomfort at being exposed are shown in the background.

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She Hit Him on the Forehead (Fig. 10) depicts a moment of violent retaliation and assertion of self. The abducted woman, on the left, stood tall to deliver a blow, and is symbolized as a beetle with sharp pincers capable of defeating the man, depicted with droopy wings, blood streaming from his nose. But the men then retaliated as a group and she, again on the left, represented now as an aggressive wasp, was Struck by a Rock (Fig. 11), rendering her passive and scarred for life.

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In New Family (Fig. 12) she is introduced to her family-in-law; she is symbolized here as a mushroom, very different from the others because she shares no family history with them at all and is very fragile. She is different yet accepted, and given a new name by which she will be known in future. Thereafter, in Healing and Hugging (Fig. 13) she is shown kindness by her new family.

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Departing now from the broad framework of Mbobo's ukuthwalwa experience, my next works comment generally upon Xhosa traditional marriage practice. Despite individual differences among Xhosa peoples and clans, it is usually customary that a new wife be faced with difficulties which serve to emphasize subservience to patriarchal will. At an early stage of a marriage there are several hlonipha requirements that have to be observed. These observances would usually be performed whether the marriage was by ukuthwalwa or not, and mark an exceptional period of respect (intlonipho) on the part of the young bride for elders and new family. Hlonipha requires that she not look her father-in-law in the eyes; not use her father-in-law's name; avoid, on entering, the left inside (isilili) of his residence (indlu); walk past this residence only on the left outside when fetching or carrying water; and avoid walking in the area in front of the cattle enclosure (inkundla).

Birth of the First Child (Fig. 14) is a significant event, publicly recognized by a falling away of some hlonipha requirements because it now becomes permissible for the new mother to look her father-in-law in the eyes, and she may now walk in the area in front of the cattle enclosure. A can of insect repellent has been used as central symbol to represent this event, because the birth of a first child results in the easing of some demeaning and annoying hlonipha restrictions much in the same way as disagreeable insect incursions can be put to an end by using the appropriate poison.

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In Holding the First Born (Fig. 15), the mother is now smiling and transformed from a fragile, downcast mushroom into a proud and beautiful, sweet-smelling flower. She is still delicate but now, with the presence of her newborn infant, her position in the homestead is more secure. This newfound security is also shown in Looking at the Baby (Fig. 16), where both the father-in-law and husband are publicly taking notice, and in Walking (Fig. 17), where I refer to the relatively unrestricted movement allowed after the birth of a first child.

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In the works so far I chose to explicitly criticize domestic violence and disregard of the basic human right of self-determination, and then adopt a more neutral recounting of ritualized indicators of respectful hlonipha behaviors expected of a new bride, which collectively indicate subjection to patrilineal will, culminating in a recognition that even within such social circumstances of subjection to male-imposed rules, at least the birth of a first child brings about a new, more comfortable, although not necessarily entirely acceptable, status.

During my research I interviewed six older women who had become married by ukuthwalwa. One was actually pleased once she realized what was happening because she knew the man to whom she was to be married. The general consensus amongst the other five women, four of whom had long-lasting marriages, was that their marriages started with difficulty and there were many social pressures that prevented their running away, such as not wanting to be called "she who never married" (ududelwe ngujambase), bride price (lobola) having been paid, fear of disappointing parents, and fear of the stigma attached to a failed marriage (being called amadikazi). Men place many constraints on women in traditional marriages, but I have an overall positive regard for my cultural background, which also provides security and safety nets in the form of extended family obligations to help each other in difficult times.

This led me to think about the ingredients for a good and long-lasting marriage. I conducted extensive interviews in both the rural area of eNtenteni as well as in the city of East London, and arrived at the work titled Traditional and Present-day Marriages (Fig. 18). Here I recognize that traditional marriages, which take into account the generally expected observances imposed on women, sometimes start with pain but can end in happiness or contentment. On the other hand, it seems that many present-day urban marriages, which disregard conventions and are based primarily on mutual attraction between potential partners, often start happily and end in sadness.

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In the three basic sections of this piece I juxtapose stylized tears and smiles, representing sadness and happiness, to convey my findings. The stem and lower outward swelling section refers to traditional marriages and features the title engraved spirally in both English and Xhosa (Imitshato yamandulo Neyalemihla). Just above that writing, tears, and then smiles are engraved upwards "and outwards, until the midriff just below the projecting wings. The middle section refers to so-called city marriages which feature a combination of tears and smiles overarched by wings as tears, which themselves have pierced tears. The predominant presence of tears is appropriate because so many marriages are unhappy.

I make my main point at the very top of the work in the roundish shape, made up of two halves seemingly joined at the midriff, suggesting equal partnership of two persons for a successful marriage. Only smiles are engraved into this section, the engraving at the very top of a Christian cross emphasizing my belief that it is good to include God in a marriage. The space around the Christian cross refers to value that I find in my heritage and the wisdom of older men and women who can counsel others on principles of successful marriage partnerships. My emphasis on the Christian God as guide, in my own life, is consolidated in the concluding artwork of this series, Solution for Divorces? (Fig. 19). Here the long searchlight symbolizes God, whom I perceive to be all-seeing and nurturing.

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Thus, by claiming Christianity I find myself liberated from the need to unquestioningly succumb to patriarchal will as dictated by ancestors and my heritage. I do not, for example, condone ukuthwalwa and hlonipha practices. Problems in life and marriage will continue to exist, but at least I have it clear that true partnership of individual persons should be based on equality, while also being open to counsel offered by elders.

Both my mother and I are members of the Bantu Church of Christ (BCOC), whose adherents address Christ in prayer as son of God, savior, and moral guide. According to BCOC teachings, our ancestors are not very important because we are not encouraged to slaughter animals in sacrifice to ancestors, nor are we encouraged to brew and drink beer to mark certain cultural occasions. In my own life, however, I am open to the concept of ancestors playing an important role in people's lives, but neither was introduced to my ancestors soon after birth (imbeleko), nor experienced a specific initiation into womanhood (intonjane).

It is relevant to note, however, that BCOC congregants do not rigidly reject of all aspects of Xhosa-speaking indigenous beliefs; for example, male circumcision as part of a process of introduction to manhood is still widely practiced by Church adherents along with their non-Christian Xhosa-speaking counterparts. BCOC has evolved some practices that allow for a symbiotic relationship of sorts between their denomination of Christianity and indigenous beliefs. As Christians they "form a distinct social group" (Hunter 1979:351), and identify themselves as different from other Christian practitioners, such as Catholics, as well as from those Xhosa speakers who do not subscribe to Christianity at all.

It is not really within the scope of this article to explore this matter extensively, but for the sake of context it does need to be said that there is a strongly expressed perception that the introduction of Christianity into the Eastern Cape brought about a "clash of Euro-Christian and African cosmologies," and that some "missionaries arrogantly assumed their faith to be superior and asserted it to be the only true one" (Tisane 1992:72). It is likely, however, that not all early contact with missionaries and traders can be characterized as intensely competitive. Yet it is against this backdrop of asserted difference, consolidated by later colonial and apartheid-era encouragements to abandon indigenous identity, that some people accepted new Christian teachings, others partially adapted them, and still others nonetheless sustained their indigenous religious beliefs, which were "deeply embedded in the psyche of the people and could not be erased" (ibid.).

Religion is "not a passive phenomenon" (Walsh and Kaufmann 1999:vii), because beliefs adapt and change, can be predatory, and also drive perceptions of how to make sense of life on earth and thus impact directly on individual and collective actions. Neither, according to Nangoli (1986:10, cited in Mndende 1999:149), should culture be divorced from religion. Yet, as Mndende has pointed out, African Traditional Religion, which is indigenous in its variants and distinct from local adaptations of Christianity and other world faiths, is frequently "either misrepresented, misunderstood, displaced, or distorted by people of other faiths" (1999:144).

GCINIKHAYA DASE

One famous local person who sustained primary loyalty to indigenous Xhosa belief in the Eastern Cape was the father of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa. Mandela has related that "my father remained aloof from Christianity and instead reserved his own faith for the great spirit of the Xhosas, Qamata, the God of his fathers" explaining this belief as being "characterized by a cosmic wholeness, so that there is little distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the natural and the supernatural" (1995:12).

Like Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, I have sustained my faith in Qamata and Xhosa belief structures that include communication with my progenitors and my ancestors' involvement in daily life. My works, collectively titled Imbeleko: Introducing a Young Xhosa Child to Society and Ancestors, expresses my sense of rootednesss in Xhosa cultural heritage. In contrast to Sotewu, I use my experiences to articulate my abiding belief in a need to sustain Xhosa cosmology in contemporary living.

I am an amaGcaleka Xhosa-speaker and grew up in rural areas around Willowvale, approximately three hours drive northeast along the coast from East London towards Durban. I had the good fortune of experiencing imbeleko as a child, and also interviewed elders of my home community for further insight while creating these works. I thus feel well qualified to rise to the challenge posed by Mndende and raise my voice in favour of great significance to be found in African Traditional Religion as practiced in the Willowvale area.

In the opening work titled Unqulo (Worship) (Fig. 19) I maintain that it is precisely an influence of Christianity, amongst other ways of thinking associated with colonial and apartheid eras in South Africa, that is contributing to a need to recognize ibuyambo zidwesha zakhuthi--that days are dark for living and there is a need for people to work together to heal a problem.

While acknowledging that individuals have full rights to implement whatever convictions of faith they may have, I believe that, according to my upbringing, it is important for Xhosa-speaking parents to practice imbeleko in order to ensure the well-being of their offspring, because this sacrifice opens communication with ancestors for that young child, and thereafter such communication can be maintained.

In Unqulo a group of family members, differentiated by size, are clustered around a centrally placed pregnant woman, who is depicted as a beer barrel because umqhombothi (Xhosa beer) is regarded as an important element facilitating communication with ancestors. Family members have inclined their covered heads (Figs. 20-21), indicating respect. Ears feature as significant symbols because of the concentration needed to communicate with ancestors on such occasions. The presence of these ancestors is represented by ants around the beer barrel base. Ants are used as a symbol because they live above and below the earth's surface and often move about unobserved. Communication with ancestors for the sake of imbeleko should begin even before the child is born.

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Next, in the work Imini Yemini (Day of Days) (Fig. 22) I consider the time of birthing, when females gather to render assistance and males are excluded. Snail and octopus shapes are stylized in order to convey a sense of slow motion, persistence, and determination at the time of giving birth. The central figure is the one giving birth, and a foot accompanied by leaves (Fig. 23) refers to the emerging infant, whose presence is protected from evil spirits by the herb impepo, which is known as "everlasting" in English, a type of Helichrysum (Sheat 1982:55). The burning candle (also seen in Fig. 23) indicates that life is holy.

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Once the child has been born its screams are regarded as a call for imbeleko, asking to be introduced to its ancestors. I chose the fish eagle (Haliaetus vocifer--Roberts 1957:79) to symbolize this call for imbeleko in the work Isimemezelo (Announcement) (Fig. 24) because its sharp cry cannot be ignored and it is respected by most of Xhosa-speaking society. Newman (1983:168) has described the call of the fish eagle as "ringing, far carrying 'weeeah, hyo-hyo-hyo' or 'heee-ah, heeah-heeah', [and] the male's voice [is] more shrill than that of the female." Hammond-Tooke (1981:99,134) and Schapera (1971:59) concur that this bird is also called nonyana ya tladi, the 'lightning bird" and that some Nguni people conceive of lightening as caused by the "laying of its eggs or the excretion of its urine" It is also said that such lightening would "not strike people, homesteads, or animals, but only trees in the open veld" (Hammond-Tooke 1981:99). The fish eagle is thus a potent symbol in my cultural background, and is used here to signal my understanding that imbeleko is imperative for people like us who have a high regard for their ancestors.

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In Umyalezo (Message) (Fig. 25) the two saxophones represent the grandparents, who are usually the ones to announce immanent imbeleko day ceremonies to the public, and the goat's head signifies a need for an appropriate sacrifice to be made. I chose saxophones as central symbols here because of the sweet and holy sound of these instruments, to which everybody will pay attention. Saxophones are popular instruments often used in local contemporary music.

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Thereafter, the work Intsimbi (Necklace) (Fig. 26) refers to the special necklace made from cow hair presented to the child along with some words of wisdom by the grandfather at the commencement of ceremonies, just before ritual washing with the herb ubulawu, a type of gerbera (Sheat 1982:93). Symbols used here include the horn on top for the grandfather, a child as bird with claws on fire indicating a burning need for imbeleko, and a cow's leg and hoof below referring to the source of the hairs for this intsimbi necklace.

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Then, at last comes Imini Yembeleko (Imbeleko Day) (Fig. 27). This occasion is marked by certain statements made by senior males, whose key phrases are engraved and inlaid spirally around this work. From the top, the first statement, made by the eldest male, reads Siyadomboza kwabaphantsi sithiphila. He thus thanks ancestors for bringing this blessed day and asks them to look after the child wherever it goes in this world. After that the father will say Nyana nantso inkabi yakho sithi phila, drawing the child's attention to the goat which will be sacrificed while asking ancestors for protection. The inkhulu (headman) is usually the last person to talk during this stage of proceedings. He refers directly to the child, saying Liyeza elo kuwe kwedini ndiyaqhuba madoda. Ndiyaqhuba ("We are giving you this kind of medicine to cure you forever ... I am going to spear this goat hoping that its bellowing will invoke and open ancestral spirits to all people in this ceremony. I am doing it").

[FIGURE 27 OMITTED]

For this invocation of ancestral blessing to be successful, the goat is expected to bleat loudly as it is sacrificed, otherwise the ritual will have to be performed again on another occasion. Once this bleating is heard, everyone present will call out the words Icamagu Livumile (Give Thanks to the Ancestors) (Fig. 28).

[FIGURE 28 OMITTED]

Thereafter the goat is skinned and cooked, leading to the moment when child and mother, in that order, receive Umoshwamo (First Taste) (Fig. 29) of that meat, offered by an inkulu (senior male). This man's outstretched hand can be seen surrounded by sorghum, indicating that umqhomboti (beer) is usually also available. Once the child has had first taste the mother will receive the meat with crossed arms to show respect to the ancestors. This meat, known as inguba, comes from the right side of the animal, between the neck and front leg.

[FIGURE 29 OMITTED]

Below the outstretched hand, the shell of a snail with a small crocodile and fish inside can be seen (Fig 30). The proximity of fish and crocodile refers to the practice whereby male and female children are treated in exactly the same manner for the purposes of imbeleko, and only much later in their lives do differences in gender begin to play a marked role in socialization.

[FIGURE 30 OMITTED]

Thereafter it is party time. In Ulonwabo (Celebration) (Fig. 31) the meat is distributed and beer flows. People enjoy themselves and thank their ancestors for the success they have brought to the ceremony.

[FIGURE 31 OMITTED]

Philosopher/poet Mongane Wally Serote has said that "we can no longer depend on other people to explore and interpret [our] past for us. We have to do it ourselves" (2001:182). This can be said about our present as well. I have a great desire to tell of the splendidness of being a Xhosa-speaking African and, as with Sotewu, have created artworks using contemporary local knowledge based on cultural heritage as points of departure in the manner recommended by Serote. Our narratives and artworks are now part of the southern African landscape in the sense used by Ingold, whereby landscape refers to both space and thoughts within and about "the world as it is known to those who dwell therein" (1993:156).

SOTEWU AND DASE

But it still seems as though another big issue remains to be addressed, namely: Why do we feel a need to communicate with a wider audience? Are we dislocated, even in our own country? Is it perhaps something to do with medium, with not being cynical enough, or with the nature of the stories we have to tell? "Enough" by what "standards of acceptability" (Bhabha in Mitchell 1995), set by which lobby? Does focus on indigenous culture play into dichotomous mainstream/indigenous thought paradigms which, while opening some doors, actually serve to sustain ourselves as "other"?

Even if that is so, we claim and proudly mobilize as contemporary "others", finding ourselves at a point in time, little more than a decade after political liberation, that encourages search and engagement with an emphasis on a "need to identify, to interpret, to historicize" (ibid.). Bhabha recommends engaging with the "idea of survival/surviving in a strong sense--dealing with or living with and through contradiction and then using that process for social agency," further commenting that cumulative "small differences and slight alterations and displacements are ... significant elements in a process of subversion or transformation" (Mitchell 1995). Such an approach to transformation, amongst others, is as applicable here in Eastern Cape and South Africa generally, as to elsewhere in the world, where vested financial and other interests seek to sustain "European superiority" (Van Robbroeck 2004:47) in visual arts.

We feel that our utilization of fired clay supported by text, rather than flashing lights combined with bells and whistles for example, suitably makes known our particular thoughts on specific topics. Our narratives are open-ended comments on "moments of social identification or cultural enunciation" (Bhabha to Mitchell 1995). Furthermore, we experience that our country has a regrettable history of colonial and apartheid era repressions, but rather than dwell on this past as a cushion of blame upon which to rest, which absolves us from action, we use our knowledge of past oppression as one of several awarenesses, and as inescapable background, to look at and celebrate some present of aspects of our lives that contribute to our unstable identities and give us strength. There are, to the best of our knowledge, few if any precedents for such sequential ceramic works as ours in South Africa, neither in visual subject matter nor in handling of clay as medium, and we hope that at least some readers will enjoy our works.

This is an abridged version of Mbobo's ukuthwalwa experience, recorded by Joan Broster (1967:77-9). The tone is one of resigned acquiescence to patriarchal will, and rather patronising on Broster's part. As such, it is a reflection of attitudes and thoughts at the time of both its occurrence and recording. It nonetheless stands both as a documentation of an ukuthwalwa event that took place several decades prior to publication in 1967 and as a reference point used by Sotewu for some of her artworks.

... Anna was the daughter of the third wife and her father had long been dead. She was sixteen years old when one morning her mother made food very early and brought it to her ... A little later she saw three young men going into the great hut. Then an old man, her uncle, called her to the hut and said: "Here is your husband. We are marrying you into this family today ... Anna began to cry. Her brothers walked up to her, and taking her by the arms pulled her out of the hut to the waiting men, saying, "Hamba, Ntomb'am, kwakunjalo nakunyoko" (Go, girl, it was like this with your mother).

One man took her by each arm and, crying, Anna was dragged along ... She did not want to go. She waited until they reached some big stones and she sat down ... Anna struggled with them, and when she tried to sit, her skirt slipped round her so that the opening fell at the back and her buttocks were exposed, and the men laughed. Overcome by rage and humiliation she picked up a big stone and hit one hard on his forehead so that his nose bled ... But when Anna picked up a second stone the other mfana hit her over the head with his stick, cutting open her scalp so that the blood ran, and today she carries a two-inch scar. Her head was painful; she went without any more fighting.

Late that afternoon they reached her new home ... They offered her food, but she refused it and continued crying ... The next day her uncle arrived. His stick was over his shoulder and hanging from his stick was her trousseau wrapped in a large black iqhiya (head cloth) ... [He instructed her to] take off your old clothes for we have given you in marriage. We wish you to stay here and not to be a silly girl. Then she saw that she was to be married and that there would be no running away, because among the amaQaba marriage is a private family contract, and ... the men demand absolute obedience from wives and daughters.

When her uncle left, Anna took the bundle of clothes. They were all new and were the clothes of a married woman ... She dressed in her married woman's clothes and her sisters-in-law escorted her to the great hut. They all sat down on the woman's side, and her sister-in-law said, "Nanku unyoko" (Here is your mother-in-law). "Nanku uyihlo" (Here is your father-in-law). "Nanku udadeboyihlo" (Here is your aunt), and then turning to Anna she said, "Nanku unoDanile nali igarna esimnika lona lokwenda" (Here is NoDanile; this is the name we have given you on your marriage and by which you will always be known to us). In her parent's home Anna was called Nonice. Anna did not speak or greet her in-laws. She sat silently, her head bowed.

On the second night she slept alone with her husband in his hut and the marriage was consummated. For weeks her head ached and she cried from homesickness. Her mother-in-law was very kind to her and her sisters-in-law shaved her hair where her head was cut open and washed the wound, but they had no medicine. It healed slowly ... After a month she was allowed to go and spend two weeks with her mother.

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Notes

This article grew out of a paper presented in 2004 at the 20th Annual Conference of South African Association of Art Historians, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. For proddings that encouraged growth we thank Leslie Ellen Jones, Allen E Roberts and an anonymous reviewer weaknesses remain our own. We also thank WSU Research Department for financial assistance.

John Steele is a potter and lecturer who has also been a mentor and sharer in the disasters and delights of working with clay for Siziwe Sotewu and Gcinikhaya Dase (Fig. 1), both while they were studying Fine Art at the Walter Sisulu University and subsequently. The works presented in this article are selected from Sotewu and Dase's graduation exhibitions (Bachelor of Technology: Fine Art) in 2002 and 2004 respectively. For this article, Steele has brought together these sculptors with various ideas to help bring their voices and artworks to an international audience. All three authors have participated in finalizing this article, but please note that personal pronouns are used by Dase and Sotewu when referring to their experiences and motivations as Xhosa-speaking persons, and when referring to their artworks.

(1) Art focusing on personal narratives using symbol and metaphor to explore social issues (poverty, rape, child abuse, crime, joblessness, inadequate housing, and so on) requires research into the meaningfulness found in the artist's own cultural heritage. Investigating culture via the medium of ceramics brings freshness to endogenous analyses of specific beliefs and practices by emphasizing the three-dimensional image as concurrent text. This approach toward generating visual imagery is encouraged at the Walter Sisulu University School of Applied Art, located in the coastal city of East London in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The School of Applied Art was established under the auspices of Border Technikon in 1994, the year in which South Africans held their first democratic elections. The Fine Art Department offers up to four years of study in disciplines including art theory, drawing, printmaking, painting, and ceramics to approximately 100 students in cramped, inner-city premises. Given a student body that, historically, has largely been disadvantaged, it is also relevant that only a small percentage of these students have received any formal visual art instruction at the primary and secondary school level. This suggests that most students are driven to register for study at the School of Applied Art by a strong creative urge, rather than by previously learned technical competencies. For such a body of students/artists, the school's emphasis on assertion of place-in-society and comment-on-society helps redress decades of being smothered by their designation as "other" under apartheid rule. Thus, encouraging the creation of sequential works to tell a story of some sort that can be interpreted by others, rather than, for example, using abstract line, shape, and color, favors meaningful communication within our current social context.

(2) Terms such as "culture", "heritage", "indigenous", "traditional", and "rural" are heavily loaded and come with a connotation of "other" to which a gaze is turned. We will consider some of these and related issues such as "identity" at various stages throughout the article.

(3) Essentialization is used here to indicate that this is not an effort to search for a special aspect of Xhosa life that makes being Xhosa, or even African, unique.

(4) At the Ann Bryant Gallery in East London: Sotewu in 2002 and Dase in 2004. At these exhibitions each work included accompanying text. The idea was to emphasize narrative content as well as facilitate the accessibility of ideas and symbolic elements to viewers. These writings, now sometimes slightly altered, form the backbone of this article: Sotewu Figs 5-19; Dase Figs 20-31.

(5) "Indigenous" is used here in the sense articulated by Mbembe "as 'son or daughter of the soil', not someone who has settled as a result of immigration or conquest" (2001:28), although this interpretation is controversial in the sense that throughout past millennia peoples from all over Africa and elsewhere have been crisscrossing the continent and settling variously, but that issue is beyond the scope of this article. Trends towards isolating and then specifically foregrounding contemporary "indigenous" experience/knowledge has arisen out of a need to redress previous marginalizations and bring such matters into mainstream discourse, but regrettably the appellation also serves to sustain "otherness", thus preserving mainstream/indigenous dichotomies. The site www.nrf.ac.za/focusareas/iks/ gives an overview of a state-supported conceptualization of indigenous knowledge systems and intersections thereof with life as lived in contemporary southern African society, with a focus on nation-building.

(6) Sotewu and Dase agree that an amaGcaleka person, for example, would say "I am talking" by using the word ndiyathetha whereas an amaMpondo person would say ndiyabhobha, while they agree, for example, that when conversation about abakhwetha-initiates undergoing circumcision--occurs that principles thereof are shared, even though practices may vary.

(7) Different spoken click sounds are written 'c', 'q', and 'x', these respectively being alveolar, palatal, and lateral (Broster 1982:123).

(8) Our point of departure accepts a political/ideological role for language in everyday use. It is, however, beyond the scope of this article to digress into theoretical debate about whether language when pared down to sound can be thought of as neutral, and how relationships between such sounds and ideology become established.

(9) This city is located about two and a half hours drive from East London, along the coast towards Cape Town.

(10) Chandre Prince (2006:1) reported, according to recent Statistics South Africa figures released for 2004, that in the Eastern Cape, 13 of "every 100 couples ... will end up in the divorce courts," with 2961 divorces recorded in this province in 2004.

GCINIKHAYA DASE has been Ceramics Specialist for a United Nations development program located at Polokwane in Limpopo Province, South Africa, and is currently engaged in Masters: Fine Art studies at University o f Johannesburg.

SIZIWE SOTEWU is a laboratory assistant at the Walter Sisulu University Department of Fine Art, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and also lectures part-time in art theory and three-dimensional studies.

JOHN STEELE is a potter who is also head of the Walter Sisulu University Department of Fine Art, Eastern Cape, South Africa, where he lectures in ceramics and art theory.