The Arts of Africa

African Sand painting

The Ndzundza Ndebele are an Nguni people who originated in South Africa in the areas of present day Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Northern provinces, formerly called the Eastern and Northern Transvaal. King Musi, a great diplomat, lead his people to settle among the Tswana and Pedi, intermarry and pursue cultural exchange. It is believed that early Ndebele house structural format was developed through their “co-existance] with the neighboring Sotho-Tswana,” (Rich, 1995, p. 174), and similarly that Ndebele house-painting strategies were adopted from a “Pedi original,” (James and van Vuuren, 1998, p. 66). Ensuing family battles caused one group of Ndebele to go farther north into Zimbabwe, thus creating the Southern and the Northern Ndebele (Powell and Lewis, 1995). Of the groups who stayed in South Africa, the Manala and the Ndzundza, it is the latter, who have developed the abstract house painting schema, and who are recognized globally as the Ndebele of South Africa (van Vuuren, 1994). The Ndebele were large land holders and fierce warriors who were able to defend their lands against encroaching Boer farmers. Autumn 1883, brought intense war between the Boers (armies of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek) and the Ndzundza under Chief Nyabela. Both Boer and Ndebele traditional stories report how the Ndebele valiantly fought for five years and finally held out in the famous Caverns of Mapoch for over eight months before starvation and lack of fresh water brought them out of their enclave.