AFRICAN PAINTED HOUSES - BASOTHO DWELLINGS SOUTH AFRICA

AFRICAN PAINTED HOUSES

Basotho Dwellings of South Africa

Prayer comes in many forms. For the Parisian Catholic it may be in the lighting of a canble in a quiet chapel of Notre Dame cathedral; for a Methodist farm family in Minnesota it may be in preparing food for a church supper. For Basotho women of Lesotho in the high veldt of southern Africa it is in the meticulous and imaginative painting iun many colors of the adobe walls of the family's house.

Traditionally, Basotho women grow the crops that sustain the family while the  men tend the cattle that are their wealth. Like many people around the world who live off the land, the Basotho seek the prorection and intervention of their ancestors with the forces of nature to insure adequate rainfall, plentiful sunshine and a peaceful environment. Uniquely, these "prayers" are regularly expressed as inscribed and painted designs on the broad, flat walls of their one story houses. The Basotho have invented marvelous decorative symbols for sun, rains and plants aplenty - all the elements of their daily world. In recent times the lives of Basotho families have changed considerably, but the women still tend the homesteads, and paint their houses freshly every year, for rain washes away the designs over time.

Gary N van Wyk, a South African art historian became intrigued with Basotho painted houses when, as a boy, he would drive through the high veldt with his family on their way to the sea. Later, as a student activist, he became an ardent foe of apartheid, and he grew more familiar with Basothio and other of the South Africans indigenous peoples who have been segregated by prejudice. Fascinated by the remarkable artistic invention of the Basotho women painters, van Wyk began a serious study of their art, in the course of which he learned a great deal about the history of the people, their vital ritual traditions, and the ongoing glory of the house painting practice.

In this book van Wyk explores the early history of the people - the story of the remarkable king Moshoeshoe, who united thme and kept them independent - and the ceremonies that persist even in the modern wrld. He describes and illustrates with his color photographs male and female initiation rituals, the powerful practices of female diviners and healers, and the sacred landscape that the people revere. Best of all, excellent photographs of the houses and the painters illustrate the fascinating text.

• Hardcover Book with Dust Jacket
• Former Library Book Covered in Plastic
• First Edition 1998
• Scarce and Valuable Title
• Great Coffee Table Book
• Size 23cm W x 27cm H
• 168 Pages in Good Condition

ISBN 0810919907

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