khomitshi (beaded panel)

unrecorded Ndebele artist, artist

khomitshi (beaded panel), late 1900s–1979

Where object was made: Transvaal Province, Union of South Africa (present-day Mpumalanga province, South Africa)

Material/technique: beading; rawhide

Dimensions:
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 116 x 11.5 cm
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 4 1/2 x 45 11/16 in

Credit line: Gift of Reinhild Janzen

Accession number: 2007.4199

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Art and Activism: 50 Years of Africana Studies at KU

Arts worn on the body signify identity, social status, and personal taste. They can also reflect women’s creative contributions to commercial networks and markets. An artist’s gender may govern choice of medium for making jewelry and other personal objects. Often, female artists in Eastern and Southern Africa work with beads, shown in these examples of Maasai and Ndebele beadwork. Although lingering colonial perceptions fostered a simple and binary view of some African jewelry as inauthentic “craft,” artists created personal adornment for many reasons. Through artistic production, these artists rejected societal marginalization, expressed cultural values, and experimented with trade beads and other valuable materials. The geometric designs in this Ndebele beaded panel reflect murals that women painted on the outside of homes to resist apartheid policies. These policies forced the removal of Zulu families to “tribal homelands” in rural areas in order to strip Black South Africans of their citizenship and render them invisible. Under these oppressive conditions, women artists asserted their creativity, identity, and resistance through murals and beadwork.

Race, Gender, and the "Decorative" in 20th-Century African Art: Reimagining Boundaries

Arts worn on the body signify identity, social status, and personal taste. They also reflect women’s creative contributions to commercial networks and markets. Here too, an artist’s gender governs their choice of medium for making jewelry and other personal objects. Often, female artists work with beads, shown in the Maasai and Ndebele women’s beadwork here. In contrast, male artists work with metal, represented in metal jewelry from Ethiopia and southern Africa. Although lingering colonial perceptions fostered a simple and binary view of some African jewelry as inauthentic “craft,” artists created personal adornment for many reasons. Through artistic production, these artists rejected societal marginalization, expressed cultural values, and experimented with trade beads and other valuable materials. The geometric designs in this Ndebele beaded panel reflect murals that women painted on the outside of homes to resist apartheid policies. These policies forced the removal of Zulu families to “tribal homelands” in rural areas in order to strip black South Africans of their citizenship and render them invisible. Under these oppressive conditions, women artists asserted their creativity, identity, and resistance through murals and beadwork.

Roots and Journeys: Encountering Global Arts and Cultures

The Ndebele people of South Africa are well-known for bold graphic designs that decorate the exterior walls of their homes. The tradition of painting the exterior walls of the kraals, or small villages where the Ndebele live, developed during the 20th century. This custom arose partly as a means to establish a unique social identity after decades of living among fractured communities dispersed by the aftermath of the Boer Wars in the late 1800s.

The geometric patterns, symmetry, and colors of Ndebele beadworks are similar to mural art and communicated the wearer’s identity. In addition to identifying tribal and family lineage, Ndebele beadwork can also indicate a woman’s age, wealth and marital status. This selection of beadwork would have belonged to a married woman. For example, the small beaded panel, called a khomitshi, is worn over a leather cape as part of a bride’s ensemble, while the beaded dance wand, or dondolo, is carried by a bride and used during special occasions for the rest of her life.

Exhibition Label:
"Roots and Journeys: Encountering Global Arts and Cultures," Jul-2011, Nancy Mahaney
The Ndebele people of South Africa are well-known for bold graphic designs that decorate the exterior walls of their homes. The tradition of painting the exterior walls of the kraals, or small villages where the Ndebele live, developed during the 20th century. This custom arose partly as a means to establish a unique social identity after decades of living among fractured communities dispersed by the aftermath of the Boer Wars in the late 1800s.

Exhibition Label:
"For Life's Sake: Arts from Africa," Oct-1983, Reinhild Kauenhoven Janzen
A beaded panel was worn over the back apron. This one is of particularly fine workmanship. Each Ndebele village or kraal has its own characteristic color combinations, so that the beaded garments identify the wearer's social and economic status, as well as her place of origin or location.