Journey to Great Zimbabwe: Unravelling artistic engineering at the disposal of a stone sculptor
Cultural Heritage
Pathisa Nyathi FOR now our intention is to confine our “Journey to Great Zimbabwe” to the Great Enclosure. We do not doubt at all that those who wish to identify the rallying and pervasive theme have done so already. There have been several phenomena that we dealt with, ranging from the solidity of dressed granite rocks, the architectural designs, the channelling narrow passage way and related platforms. The chevron pattern which covers only a section of the outer stone wall is symbolic of the womb. In fact, the entire Great Enclosure represents and expresses the womb which is the site where the important African concepts of continuity, endlessness, eternity and perpetuity are operationalised.
We dealt with the crocodile as representing the chevron pattern and thus a symbol of fertility. This was even clearer with reference to the Venda people where the pool image is stronger and clearer than at Great Zimbabwe. The Conical Tower is accurately provided with two testes, making it anatomically accurate and consistent with the pervasive theme at Great Zimbabwe: Fertility. Admittedly, one of the testes has been tampered with as was the case with the top part which was interfered with by German geologist Carl Mauch. Circularity is clearly the building block for the entire lithic cultural edifice as there are curved lines rather than straight lines and rectangular structures with 90 degree angles. Throughout black Africa, from West Africa right down to South Africa, the circle is perceived as having no beginning and no end. It thus represents and expresses ideas of continuity, endlessness, eternity and perpetuity. “Individuals perish, humanity is forever.”
Furthermore, the circle represents and expresses female genitalia which black Africa, by and large, will not sculpt, draw/ paint or mould. The Great Enclosure thus has both sexual elements represented in singly. However, this is not all. There have been unearthed at Great Zimbabwe soapstone figurines which are an expression of the fertility ideology. Genitalia have been identified on the soapstone figurines. We saw how Edward Matenga clearly and convincingly unpacked the figurines and related them to Shona fertility ideology by going via Shona ethnography, in particular Shona cosmology. Most recently we have been dealing with the Zimbabwe Birds, also crafted out of stone. We saw how each bird has features that more or less summarise the Great Enclosure in terms of its symbolic features.
We do acknowledge that the Zimbabwe Bird is, without doubt, one of the highest artistic imaginations and expressions on the African continent, if not indeed the entire world. This time the male and female elements have been brought together in a sexual encounter which was artistically and innovatively made to look like a bird in order to navigate the obscene, sexually explicit and vulgar cultural terrain which African ethics and morality would not countenance. The Zimbabwe Bird was a culmination of the desire to deal with issues that normally would remain under the tongue. We are about to complete our story of the “bird” that was meant to be perceived as a bird while simultaneously expressing something more deep-seated, fundamental and bearing sexual nuance.
Before we complete the bird narrative in the next installation, we would like to bring to the fore how a stone sculptor, as an artist, creatively constructed a bird which has, for centuries, been viewed as a bird and given several interpretations and yet for all that time, concealing its true identity as a sexual expose. How did a sculptor achieve this artistic engineering? The first artistic manipulation at the sculptor’s disposal was use of symbolism. Essentially, symbolism is about making look alike, behave alike and simulate alike. The neck symbolises and looks like a phallus, a man’s penis. The Zimbabwe Bird’s neck was fashioned to look long and cylindrical, indeed out of proportion for a bird’s neck. This is what a sculptor resorted to — symbolic manipulation of a neck to express something else. Within African society the neck already symbolised a phallus. It was a good starting point for a stone sculptor. He knew something cylindrical represents a phallus. The Ankh, part of the pyramid writings, carries the same symbol. A burning firebrand, by virtue of being cylindrical, symbolises a phallus and is used to communicate sexual matters through the use of non-verbal communication. Where genitals are symbolised, the female element is represented by a circle while the male one is represented by a cylindrical shape.
A sculptor then had to furnish the bird with a head with a beak and eyes. For the eyes it was a lot easier. The eyes, being circular in design, already fitted into the overall theme of fertility embedded in the Zimbabwe Bird, in particular and Great Zimbabwe in general. The circular eyes symbolised fertility by virtue of their design. This was even more convincing as the chosen design already looked like eyes. Regarding the head of the bird, the sculptor resorted to angular manipulation or design, where the cylindrical section of the phallus ends and the glans begins, he produced an obtuse angle so as to create an impression of a head provided with a beak and eyes. The problem here is that there are people, in fact the majority, who have seen one version of the Zimbabwe Bird whose beak looks birdlike or authentic. As a matter of fact, there are other versions of the Zimbabwe Bird whose beak looks identical to a circumcised penis. The bird’s beak looks more like the head of a reptile and less of a bird. This unbirdlike presentation of the bird is nearer that which the neck and head are in actual fact representing — the phallus and its head ( nyoka and musoro wenyoka).
A sculptor worked from a knowledge of what he really intended to portray. He was preoccupied with presenting sexuality, and more precisely in this case, sexual intercourse. He knew the human anatomy involved. He thus sought to replicate, albeit under guise, the very male and female sexual organs that interact in the sexual act. The male and female elements were rearranged, repositioned and reshaped — but ensuring that basic similarities were retained. The neck had to resemble the penis while there had to be similarities between the labia and wings, in terms of relative position, shape and thickness. When the hidden meaning is revealed, suddenly the intended meaning should be convincing. Parts of the reconstructed bird must relate to known human parts in terms of male and female genitalia. Little convincing should take place. For example, when the wings are interpreted as labia there should be no difficulty convincing someone to see that. The same goes for the neck when it is revealed as a man’s penis.
Essentially, what a sculptor is engaged in is creating something that resembles another and is amenable to dual interpretation. It is a bird, yet it is human genitalia engaged in the sexual act, yes, they are. What one sees as buttocks, all of a sudden, depending on how the bird is held, become testes. This is artistic expression of the highest order. A work of art allows for different interpretations. This goes for the Zimbabwe Bird. It equally goes for the interpretation and appreciation of a verse or literary piece. What remains is to unpack the lower part of the Zimbabwe Bird and to see how it resembles the symbolised sexual reality. Once again, we shall attempt to unravel artistic engineering that the sculptor engaged in.