The Sunday News
SOME years ago, at an African cultural festival in the Algerian capital Algiers, I bought a drawing that depicted some beautiful lady who was holding a ceramic pot with painted chevron designs on it. Beyond the enchanting drawing of the woman, there was some renditions of African aesthetics. My heart was soothed. I loved the drawing because of the aesthetics it embraced.
In my mind, the three layers of beauty were apparent. What, other than a circular design captured the essence of the woman’s beauty? Like most, if not all of nature she symbolised circularity, the universal building block or design for the cosmos and the terrestrial component.
As if that was not enough, there was a second layer of beauty, the ceramic pot. The vessel is not natural but belongs on the cultural realm. It is evidence of humanity’s desire to replicate the characteristics of the heavens in their beauty.
The bellied ceramic pot embraced the circular design. On it, there was the chevron design, itself representative and symbolic of a critical tissue in a woman’s body – the womb.
We do not see the womb but we do know the triangular area on the woman’s body marks the area beyond which the circular womb is located. This is an important link between triangle or open V and the womb that is circular in design. Failure to link the two makes it difficult to appreciate the meaning or message behind a triangle.
The triangle, as a symbol or metaphor for the womb represents eternity, endlessness, perpetuity and continuity that are resident in a womb. Individuals perish, humanity is forever. This is possible because of the womb, a special tissue able to replicate more human beings through sexuality. It turns out that the triangle, in order to maximise beauty, is repeated.
The joined triangles then constitute a chevron pattern that represents the African elements of aesthetics.
Repetition translates to movement, an important attribute in art. The joined triangles are the entire same acute angle that is naturally determined. A triangle that is informed and determined by the triangle that marks the boundary of the womb.
Spacing is constant. Regularity, rhythm, and periodicity are encapsulated.
It is the movement in the triangles that has led some researchers to think the chevron pattern is a snake. Africa knows that snakes have heads and they certainly would not have drawn one without a head. Besides the acute angles in a chevron design (pattern) are not feasible in a snake with a backbone.
The resulting chevron pattern is symmetrical and exhibits equilibrium. All these have design that are circular. They are in constant motion. Their velocities are constant hence; predictions regarding their positions in the universe may be determined through mathematical calculations. Humanity seeks to replicate the heaves on earth: as above, so below.
The inspiration and grounding for these attributes is traceable to the cosmic bodies. Art captured these traits regardless of genre.
Where movement is regular and rhythmic there is beauty. Art is life and art is beauty. Art is man’s desire to approximate heavenly beauty. The heavens were replicated on the cultural realm for their perceived beauty. This was initially the case with all the ancients who created and built monuments on a gigantic scale.
This has been a brief introduction to the icons that were executed or embellished on the walls of buildings. The various artifacts in particular were embellished with circles, chevron patterns, herringbone, dentelle, curvilinear designs, concentric circles, spirals and whorls.
In reality, all these are related icons. All of them are traceable to the circle. Already the circle and the chevron unit have been linked. In essence, what we have are variations of a circle that carries the meaning of eternity, continuity, endlessness and perpetuity.
Monotony is never good for the mind. A single design may be rendered in several ways.
Our focus is on the ceramic pots unearthed at Stonehenge and the environs. What emerges is the similarity between those designs and those that proliferate on the African continent. The same designs are executed on hut walls. A look at the motifs the Matobo District women execute display many of the designs found at Stonehenge.
There is clear evidence of replication of the decorative motifs displayed on hairdos, face paintings (see Bhudaza a book penned by this writer). Secular and sacred artifacts equally carry the same designs.
Some years ago, I wrote a book titled, Echoes from the Past which sought to interpret the meanings behind beauty, behind the motifs. Africa has some idea of the resident meanings in the various icons. We have no reason to think the same motifs were expressions of something very different.
Africa’s preservations of meanings of the visual arts has provided some useful interpretation of similar icons. For Stohenge this is certainly the case. What we find in Africa is similar to what was unearthed at Stonehenge. What remains now is to glean icons that were etched on the ceramic pots and Stonehenge.
African interpretations will be applied to facilitate the interpretation of Stonehenge’s traditional visual art traditions. Africa and the rest of the world will be brought closer together when it gets to decorative traditions.
