Journey to Great Zimbabwe: Introducing the Zimbabwe Bird that is not a bird

AN important idea or concept is, in the African context, expressed in more than one art form. In Sculpture as in Architecture, the same idea may be expressed. It may also be expressed in dance or song. The arts have that capacity to express in a more acceptable way that which, in moral terms, is taboo. Art negotiates the treacherous moral and ethical terrain. What would otherwise be taboo and anathema, is sanitised and made to appear in a manner that is tolerated and no longer obscene or vulgar.

We have over several weeks in this column dwelt on the critical concepts of continuity, eternity, perpetuity, endlessness and immortality. Sexual reproduction, at the level of human beings and other animals, indeed other life forms, is at the centre of concretisation of the concept, sexuality or sexual reproduction has two distinct and separate male and female elements. Sometimes the two are expressed singly or separately with the male genitals being less taboo or anathema in comparison to their female counterparts. The gateway to this planet for humans is via the female sex organs. They are respected to a point where artists, through their gift of artistry, enjoy immunity because they express matters under the tongue in their own creative and acceptable way.

There comes a time when reality is approximated. This is even more taboo and sacrosanct that the public domain is never ventured into. Artists, sometimes through sculpture or performances, dare to challenge the heavens. This is when the sexual act itself is dealt with and represented and expressed. It is close to calling a spade a spade and not a digging instrument — but at the same time remaining within the culturally defined confines of morality. In language, as in practice, the sexual act remains in the private domain. Artists however, through unique creativity and innovation, manage to express the act in a way that some people may see but fail to perceive the full import of their artistry.

The Zimbabwe Bird is an iconic symbol in Zimbabwe and has not been crafted elsewhere. As previously alluded to, the Zimbabwe Bird belongs in the realm of sexual expression in so far as the ideas of continuity and endlessness are concerned. All and sundry see and admire the bird. What bird is it, what is its species? As is always the case, individuals seek meaning in whatever they observe. The world around them must make sense. The seen bird is then explained and interpreted in accordance with what they have seen or known, sometimes without perception. The bird is then interpreted in accordance with other birds. In their culture what are the perceptions and knowledge about birds. Interpretation cannot escape the broader cultural context.

We want to believe we have sufficiently laid the background where we can now begin to explore and explode the bird myth, the concealment ably achieved by artists, the sculptors. That the soapstone birds are not the only ones ever made is known to those who ought to know. However, they are the only birds of their kind that are known by many. Excavations are not yet complete at all Zimbabwe type monuments, big or small. Even within the Great Zimbabwe Complex, Archaeologist Shadreck Chirikure and colleagues have, in the recent past, carried out excavations on sites hitherto unexcavated.

Firstly, let us indicate that there are archaeologists that have expressed reservations regarding certain aspects of the Zimbabwe Birds. The challenge here is that many of us have come to know one version of the bird, the more ‘‘polished’’ one which looks like a bird. This is the one seen on coins from the pre-independence period. This is not the only Zimbabwe Bird. There are many of them with some still awaiting repatriation back to Zimbabwe. One was repatriated from Germany. Another remains at Groote Schuur where it was owned by Cecil John Rhodes. However, the point here is that some birds raised eyebrows of archaeologists who have looked at them. First, it was the beak which does not look like a beak. They were right, it’s not a beak, but a representation of one in order to conceal the identity of what they sought to express.

Next it was the legs of the bird. They observed the legs had a suspicious number of toes — a number not associated with that of birds. Once again, they were right, those are not the legs of a bird, but of a human being entangled in some erotic encounter as part of expressing and fulfilling the idea of continuity and endlessness as embedded in the sexual act depicted by the artistically engineered Zimbabwe Bird. Tom Huffman and Peter Garlake are among those who posed questions but did not take up the matter further.

The question we may pose is where else do we see this imitation of the sexual act replicated? Not so long ago I witnessed pupils of one primary school performing Jerusarema Mbende Dance. The boy had the legs of a girl around his waist and lifted her to a position behind his own body. Her torso was in front of the boy’s body. To me it all looked like a Zimbabwe Bird. Indeed, it was a performance-related execution and depiction of the Zimbabwe Bird. I know some may not see it as such. Indeed, this is to be expected as some people will not see sexuality that is embedded in our national flag on which we find the Zimbabwe Bird.

Our argument is that the artist picked various components from, in the main, male and female genitals, arranged them in a manner where in terms of relatedness, they depict a bird. There is some engineering in terms of size so that parts assume a size as would depict sizes commensurate with a bird. It is all part of innovation, creativity which an artistic mind is capable of springing.

We shall this week start with the wings. There are two wings, those who are imaginative should, given the background we have laid so far, surmise that the two wings are representations and expressions of labia that constitute a part of female genitals. We shall argue that this is an idea that is expressed elsewhere in language. Not so long ago during a programme, Mai Chisamba television show, one participant referred to the labia as wings. So doing conceals vulgarity in language terms. The context was regarding what Africans do about the labia as part of sexual joy for the two partners.

This is a complex idea that demands more attention. It is one that is prevalent in many African societies, the one of several attributes that Africans share in common. We will have to deal with the idea relating to unextended labia among African women and the stigma associated with same. What some strangers may see as primitive practices by Africans are to the Africans, real. To unpack the African past outside of anthropology, philosophy and language is to speak of angels outside the context of Heaven, in the Christian world.