The Sunday News
Cultural Heritage Pathisa Nyathi
On several occasions whenever Veronique Attala and I met she always insisted that we go to Amagugu International Heritage Centre (AIHC). The purpose of our visit was to construct a miniature Ndebele hut. At the Centre there is a full size hut umkulu which we use as a teaching resource for the students who visit the Centre.
Initially, I did not buy into her idea as I did not then appreciate the value of the whole initiative. Finally, I acceded to her request and we went to construct the miniature hut. It was to be located next to the full size kitchen hut. Meanwhile, she had brought her mobile phone which she used to document the whole construction process. Butholezwe Nyathi was also in attendance with a digital camera to document the entire process. Being one who is passionate about documentation, I began to see the full value behind Veronique’s idea.
The three male workers, Dube, Fili Tshimba Ncube and Misheck Dube at the Centre were soon at work – drawing a circle on the ground and digging a trench to hold the wooden poles that would constitute the frame for the wall. The circle was so small that only one person could go inside. It was, to all intents and purpose, a miniature hut.
My mind was fired with imagination as the work commenced. This was taking place at the time when I was pursuing the theme of Ndebele hut architecture. There did not seem to be one person directing the construction operation. All the participants were elderly people who were au feit with construction of Ndebele huts. It was men who had gone to the veld to cut down the poles and bring them to the site. They knew about the gender division of labour.
Wood working, be it in construction work or woodworking, is the preserve of men. The various artefacts such as headrests, (imithiya), wooden plates, (imiganu), meat platters (imigwembe) milk pails (iziganu/amathunga) are produced by the male folk. The women did, however, make use of some of these wooden artefacts produced by men.
The good examples are the wooden hoe handles (imphini), stirring rods (impini) and wooden floor compacters (izitshayo). There were hardly instances when women worked on wood. They got the wooden implements that they used from their male counterparts. I saw that gender-based division of labour in practice. When the circular trench had been completed the men used an axe to trim the wooden poles obtained from the veldt to the same height.
Once the wooden poles were in place the gulley was covered with soil which was then compacted. A split wooden sapling was tied firmly around the entire structure. Bark fibre, obtained from a idodzi tree (a ficus species) was obtained from a nearby hillock. That work too was done by the male folk. A small entrance was left to allow only one person to go in-to do some plastering, ukubhada and ukugudula. The floor too had to be worked on by one person inside the hut.
Meanwhile, documentation continued. Veronique followed the men who were extracting bark fibre. She documented the type of tree and how men obtained fibre from the bark (ukwebula inxoza).With the framework for the wall done; it was now the two women MaMoyo and MaDube who stepped forward to do the next stage-applying the plaster to the wall. Clay is worked by the women folk.
It is women who excavate clay from the ground. The soil is taken to the construction site. The carting of water is equally the role of women. Once the soil, inhlabathi and water are in place, women add water to the soil, ukufafaza. It is not just any soil but one from an ant heap, isiduli. They use their hands to produce (ukucuba) a consistent paste.
Sometimes the clay is mixed with fresh cow dung (ubulongwe). For the miniature hut though, cow dung was not used. Cow dung is water repellant. It is thus used to keep water away from the wall. The two women then started plastering the mini wall. Meanwhile, Veronique, keen to have a hands-on experience got inside the hut and started plastering the inside part of the wall. She was emulating, with a fair degree of success, what the seasoned women, MaMoyo and MaDube were doing.
Within a short space of time the entire wall was plastered. The next stage was putting together some roof. Wood is used to make the roof and that meant the three women stepped aside and the three men were in the forefront constructing the roof. Wooden poles had already been secured from the veldt. After taking some measurements the men trimmed the rafters to the same size. The construction of the roofing frame was done on the ground. Bark fibre was used to tie (ukunxada) the poles (intungo) together.
After that, wooden saplings were split in half, to produce imithando; they were used to secure the rafters. The roof frame was complete and was lifted on to the wall as was done in days gone by. The next stage was to thatch the roof structure. Working with grass is the preserve of women. Whitewater is close to the Matobo National Park where thatch grass such as, uqunga, usezi, intungwa and inzala are readily available.
The National Park authorities allow the local women to go into the park and cut the grass, with the National Park retaining an agreed percentage. Women move in at the beginning of June each year to harvest the grass. Some women still have the grass from last year’s harvest which they are selling . Instead of going to the veldt, grass was bought from those selling it. In any case this year’s grass is not yet ready for harvesting.
MaMoyo and MaDube were soon at work to produce amathikili. Bark fibre was used to tie small bundles of grass to produce a long structure. When amathikili have been made the next stage was to place them on the roof structure starting from the base moving upwards. Meanwhile, all the hut construction stages were being captured by Veronique and Butholezwe.
It was then realised that placing more amathikili on the roof structure would cause the collapse of the wall supporting the roof. At that moment the heavens opened up. Some black polythene sheet was hastily placed over the entire structure to protect it from the rain. It was agreed work would resume the following week. The time lapse was adequate to allow the wall structure to dry up and thus be strong enough to support the roof-poles plus grass.
Work on the roof was still outstanding. The floor was yet to be done. Meanwhile, MaMoyo and MaDube were to excavate soils of various pigments that were to be used in decorating the wall. After all, this mini project was inspired by “My Beautiful Home-Comba Indlu Ngobuciko” project that was started last year(2014) in wards 16 and 17 in Matobo District. Ideas started flying about. Why not give an opportunity to school pupils and other visitors who so wish to build their own huts from start to finish in one day?
Before we revisited Amagugu for the second stage in hut construction, Veronique circulated the document of the work that was done on “You Tube” together with a similar project in Philippines where a Nipa hut was constructed using bamboo. Then, I fully appreciated Veronique’s idea, a grand idea in documenting our architectural heritage.
