(an excerpt from the thesis "African Space[Time]: a paradox to Spacetime Compression")
Space as temporal, kinetic, ephemeral, ritual.
“African ways of space-making, or Southern ways of space-making, are so much about the oral and the atmospheric, about forms of dress and forms of ritual. So other disciplines naturally fall into space-making, which is quite different to a very Westernised, very traditional view of what architecture is.” - Sumayya Vally¹
The Ndebele tribe emerged out of regional conflict in the modern day Kwazulu Natal (Coastal province located in eastern South Africa). From 1821², marking their departure from the Zulu Kingdom, they voyaged through the Southern African context, encountering, raiding, absorbing, and fleeing from other ethnic groups until they settled in the Matabeleland region of modern day, Zimbabwe.3
For their semi nomadic lifestyle, the iconographic hemispherical thatched hut that was used in the Zulu empire suited their needs.⁴ This style of hut, also known as iqhugwane, was easy to construct, light and suitable for the climate.⁵ After encountering a series of other groups, Ndebele architecture changed drastically, including their cultural, social, and spatial production.
The precolonial Ndebele showed and embodied an ephemeral way of life.⁶ Underlying the built fabric of the Ndebele ethnic group and the vast ethnic groups in the Southern African region is a social order derived from a belief system that led to a ritualistic and performative use of space. Sacredness is not expressed through ornamentality or with impressive volumes and geometries⁷, it is expressed at the threshold, before one enters a hut they stoop and call out “qoki.” For the precolonial Ndebele, the entrance had no door, but due to its size one had to change their posture, subjecting themselves to whoever is inside⁸. The boundary itself holds a liminal space.
Rituals are performed to uphold customs, it is a way to behave, a series of actions in a specified context⁹. They are performed sometimes individually and other times with a group, bolstering a group identity. Rituals may vary in their articulation, from repetitions in schedules or rites of passage, the later invoking Lefebvre representational space.¹⁰ They involve the completion of a sequence of events which set out a pattern, occupying space. Can the ritual, as a concept be attributed to the expression of built fabric?
In the book “Space time and Architecture”, Sigmund Gideon strives to express a universal principle of spatial practice, ones that transcend culture, variations, and nuances.¹¹ Throughout his various work, he tries to express a chronology on the evolution of architecture of our conceptions of space within the field. From the architecture of the renaissance, with its euclidean geometry and singular, standardized perspective¹² to the modern era of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies Van De Rohe, where space was considered as a progressive concentration of energies.¹³ This chronological ordering of architecture that Gideon attempts leaves out premodern history from non-European contexts. This approach minimises the plurality of spatial conceptions possible, to create a holistic but exclusionary narrative.
In Summaya Vally’s description of “southern ways of space-making”¹⁴, we can regard meditative or mindful collectivistic practices as manifestations of architecture. Many precolonial tribes in Southern Africa imbued their homesteads with complex symbolism, regardless of the simplicity and modesty in the construction. These mystical symbols have resulted in certain built patterns. In this scenario there is no primary observer such as in the renaissance¹⁵ or the phenomenological design approach of modernism¹⁶, as described by Gideon. Instead, this collectivist, Southern approach is based on causality. The activities conducted by the community and the bigger spiritual and social calendar determine the built environment.
Figure 1 depicts umuzi, the Ndebele homestead, which is smaller in scale than ikhanda. In their belief system different ceremonies are conducted depending on the occasion. When a family member dies in a location far from their rural home, there are the processes of Umbuyiso and Njelele¹⁷ shown in Figure 2 and 3. Umbuyiso translates to “bringing home” and Njelele is indigenous Zimbabwean music which is played and danced to after the ceremony. During Umbuyiso, the spirit of the deceased is brought home along with the soil from their original grave. The soil is deposited in the burial area of the homestead. People in attendance are sombre in deference. This is a communal activity. A hut is then burnt down to commemorate the dead.¹⁸ This aligns with the Ndebele group’s ephemeral spatial practices.
References
¹Claudia Croft, ‘Architect Sumayya Vally Is Building The Future’, 10 Magazine (blog), 2 November 2022, https://www.10magazine.com/arts/sumayya-vally-interview-10-magazine-issue-69/.
²Pathisa Nyathi, Zimbabwe’s Cultural Heritage (Ascot, Bulawayo [Zimbabwe]: ʾamaBooks, 2005), 2.
³Nyathi, Zimbabwe’s Cultural Heritage, 6.
⁴Violette Kee Tui and Pathisa Nyathi, eds., Preservation of Ndebele Art and Architecture (Bulawayo: Amagugu Publishers, 2018), 18.
⁵Franco Frescura and Joyce Myeza, Illustrated Glossary of Southern African Architectural Terms: English-IsiZulu - an Illustrated Survey of Historical Terms Appertaining to the Indigenous, Folk and Colonial Architectures of Southern Africa, UKZN Bilingual Glossary Series (Scottsville, Kwazulu-Natal: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2016), 5.
⁷8. Space of Mr Giedion, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqCCZLfumIk.
⁸Tui and Nyathi, Preservation of Ndebele Art and Architecture, 16.
⁹Ritual Definition and Meaning | Collins English Dictionary’, accessed 14 December 2022, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ritual.
¹⁰Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford, OX, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell, 1991), 33.
¹¹Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, 7.
¹²Giedion, 431.
¹³Giedion, 543.
¹⁴Croft, ‘Architect Sumayya Vally Is Building The Future’.
¹⁵Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture, 431.
¹⁶Giedion, 543.
¹⁷Nyathi, Zimbabwe’s Cultural Heritage, 7.
¹⁸Nyathi, 7.
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