The Art of the Makonde
The Makonde
The art of the Makonde people burst on the world, only three decades ago, in rich and joyous exhuberation.
The Examples of the earlier carving tradition of this interesting people are to be found occasionally in museums and in private collections; but, until comparatively recently, they had made little impact. A flood of studies of this art-form during the 60s sought to explain the Makonde point of view and we now begin to understand something of the background to the vigour of this explosion.
Today, there are – in classic Renaissance-style – schools of Makonde carvers. Their work is being encouraged as a nationalised contribution to African culture and copied as “airport art”. Factories of the prolific Kamba carvers have been influenced, too, into repetitive output; but the Makonde remain supreme in the field, with their imaginative representations of djinn , wood sprites and angry beings, leering along the periphery of human existence and, to some extent, controlling it.
The Makonde branch of the great Bantu-speaking nation is believed to have arrived in its home along East Africa's Ruvuma river only two centuries ago, in one of the great migrations of the continent. The long, swirling trek may have begun in west-central Africa, but the permanent location chosen now left the tribe exposed to depredations of the 19 th -century slave raiders.
The Makonde therefore again spread outwards, away from the dangerous river valley communication route which today divides Tanzania from its southern neighbour, Mozambique. Man of them took to the high plateau of Cabo del Gado which became for them more a fortress than a congenial home.
It was a move which left the Makonde isolated and insular; but it also meant that, whereas the indigenous cultures of other Bantu peoples were crumbling before the onslaught of colonialism, Makonde family tradition remained strong and enduring.
Makonde Country
The Ruvuma River divides the tribe, an artificial boundary decided upon by Western powers last century. Almost two-thirds of the Makonde – some 175,000 of them – were sheltered on the Portuguese-held side of the plateau and, although Christian missionaries began itineration amongst tribal homes in the early ‘20s, the first conversion of a Makonde is said to have occurred only in 1930.
Religion has now made deep inroads into tribal custom; yet it has not dimmed Makonde mythology and the realm of the spirits (stemming from past millennia of African living) exists strongly for this people. During the past 30 years, Makonde from the high plateau of what was the Portuguese colony in East Africa made their way down the Ruvuma river and into the plantations of Tanzania, there to find work and regular sustenance. But, in their home areas, the tradition of carving was being kept alive by tribal ceremonies, which required figurines, and family shrines.
In huts, hidden from most human eyes, were kept the mpiko helmet-masks, the sacred drums and the paraphernalia of tribal magic. These secret charms – mostly representations of female fertility – were needed in age-grade initiation and puberty celebrations; and they were revered. As talismans for their journeys Makonde men also took with them carved wood (or moulded clay) representations of their mothers; and the custom perhaps reminds us of Africa's old matriarchal system.
More, there is a tradition amongst the Makonde that the male progenitor of the tribe, weary of his lonely travels, spent an evening whittling from a tree the likeness of a being whom he had never encountered – Earth's first woman. As he lay asleep that night, his handiwork took life, to become his companion and the Eternal Mother of this people. Timber is therefore a source both of Makonde existence and of mystic significance.
The Makonde Artist
When the Makonde sculptor approaches a baulk of wood, it is as a liberator. He seems to sense within the grain of the wood a bondage which his art has a duty to end. He appears to recognise in the timber's profile the features, the stance and the personalities of people he has known – be they human or spirit. He explores as does a skilled miner – aware of the seam which is to be followed and chipping away at the imprisoned mineral wealth. The Makonde carver releases his subjects from timber.
During such work, his concentration has the devoted frenzy of the rescue worker. Once begun, he carves from dawn to nightfall, and for many days on end. This is not to say that imagination plays no part in this process of “liberation”. The noted French writer Roger Fouquet has explained: “If in the West the being is the highest aspect of ontology, in Africa the highest aspect is the life force” – an interconnecting power which bridges between human existence and the supernatural world.
So fantastic are the shapes which emerge under the carvers' tools that some Makonde creations have been regarded as the result of hallucinogens. The Makonde know drugs, just as much as does anyone from the West or Orient; but most carvers from the tribe say that their inspiration comes in dreams and that, whilst working, they refuse most other stimulants.
Today, the most prominent Makonde carvers are to be found in southern Tanzania and in villages surrounding modern cities to which they have moved. They have crossed the Ruvuma River from their plateau, sometimes as refugees from a harsh habitat and sometimes as fugitives from the intrusion of a colonial captivity which was becoming repugnant to them. Because they are so newly-arrived from traditional Makonde family life, and because they have deep intimacy with customs of the African past, they are able to portray most successfully the spirit of modern Tanzanian socialism – Ujamaa , as President Julius Nyerere has termed it – which is a rejection of some Western values in favour of the family-ness of Old Africa. But it is in the spirit world that a Makonde artist is most at home.
The Makonde view of the borderland between human existence and the supernatural remains largely undefined: yet each sector is intensely real to him. We see but little evidence of a belief in any omnipotent God; but ancestors are numerous and, in almost every carving, we meet earth spirits – the shetani demons of the nights and days – who, with the speed of vapour, assume many forms and inspire awe and fear. They are frequently tricksters and scoundrels who inhabit forest and thickets, loiter around villages and are generally capricious towards Makonde men and woman.
Most modern Makonde artists confess that they have never met the shetani (as this perhaps 300-strong group is inexplicitly called); but, they say, they remember descriptions given by parents and others who knew the spirits well and their carvings equate the nether-world with the circle of human relationships. The range of their work is therefore comprehensive and generally grotesque.
From distorted animal forms to mischievous near-humans (who can disguise themselves as oppressive officials and policemen, for instance), all have the desires and lusts of Man himself, in exaggerated degree. Thus, in many sculptures, we meet forest-dwelling kubwengu who devour bush pigs and frighten humans; cockerels, snakes and chameleons who symbolise important facets of life; and greedy earth-bound spirits portrayed in a flow of carved movements which is intensely expressive.
Works by modern Makonde artists contain the still-extant thought lines of the Old Africa; and, as that ancient world gives way, they gain in interest. Collectors find that familiarity with Makonde trophies brings fuller understanding of the intricacies of the carvers' minds and, as time goes by, appreciative recognition of the metier employed.
Never boring, these sculptures in wood are an amalgam of strange beauty and unusual themes; they cannot be ignored. As the complexity of symbol and artist's language begins to be understood, each piece becomes a sparkling conversation, in which the beholder may take part if he cares to pause awhile. The Makonde artist finds nothing incongruous in melding parts of the human body with those of the animal world he sees around him, for a Makonde accepts unquestioningly the interweave of all life.
Thus, the leaves of a tropical plant can track through a carving as tendril-like human arms, and – just as easily – can coalesce as ears, or breasts. (The carver frequently exaggerates a feature so that the presence of the spirit-world is emphasized). Human limbs may sprout and bifurcate like slender branches; faces can simplify to the enchanting grin of a caricature. Bodies sometimes tail off, mermaid-like, ignoring the anatomical detail to which most carvers give sincere attention. Yet posture and bone-structure are generally cleverly suggested, with the economy and efficacy of a line drawing.
Throughout the traditional Makonde art the cohesion and spontaneous interdependence of all living things is evident. It is a tenet of life about which this African tribe does well to remind us all.
The Medium: African Ebony
Botanically, there exist some 300 varieties of the so-called “African Ebony”, a tropical tree found South of the Sahara. That most commonly used by Makonde artists is Diosphyros mespiliformis , a rather stunted and deformed tree with rough leaves (which are sometimes included in the carvings). The trunk of this variety is frequently malformed and the bark flakes easily. The inner core is often quite rotten when the carver obtains it and sometimes contains pieces of stone, embedded within the timber.
The outer inches show a light colour, but the heart-wood is dark brown to black in hue and takes polish well. It is heavy, hard and durable, sinks in water, remains unaffected by termites and other insects and, when seasoned, rarely cracks. Artists and dealers often polish the wood with shoe polish (or better, bee's wax or line seed oil) to get the ebony's glossy shine.
Yet it is a difficult timber to carve, its toughness giving the artists much strenuous work and the bigger pieces have frequently taken more than a year to complete.
Some Makonde craftsmen have turned from African Ebony to the easier medium of Muhugu an African type of mahogany, or Mpera Vitu , an African rose-wood, for their carvings. Another reason for the usage of these timbers is the scarcity of the ebony wood .
The more spectacular pieces are likely never to be duplicated as the older carvers die off, or retire from their exacting profession. Young men taking up the task tend increasingly towards flimsy work, more easily portable by their tourist patrons, but displaying less finesse.
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