Isigqiki

Isigqiki

[ Source of title : Benathi Marufu for FHYA using Nessa Liebhammers SAHRIS spreadsheet for JAG materials ]

Object

JAG 1993-11-2

Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Description [Source - Debra Pryor for FHYA, 2022, using spreadsheet created by Nessa Leibhammer for the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS), from JAG materials in 2015: Object description: Very long rectangular headrest. The platform in generally flat with minor undulation. It has a long retangular platform as a base. The headrest is divided more or less into thirds - with vertical rectangular pillar supports. The central section has a horizontal bar dividing it in half and two pillars as support in the lower half. The two end sections each has four rectangulat pillar supports one of which is in the shape of an H ( one of these is broken in half). The two pillars in each section closest to the centre are covered with amasumpa (bump/wart) designs and the two end supports have linear vertical and horizontal grooves carved into them. The reverse side of the H-shaped pillars are also covered in amasumpa designs while the third pillar in from each end has horizontal grooves. Object form type: headrest; Object material type: wood; Technique: carving, pokerwork; Colours: Brown, black; Object age: late 19th to early 20th century; Production place: KwaZulu-Natal; Cultural association: North Nguni; Place of use: KwaZulu-Natal; Provenance: T8.]

Attributions and conjectures [Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2017: Comments on classification: In his 'A Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africa', Union of South Africa, Department of Native Affairs, Ethnological Publications, Vol. 5, Pretoria, Government Printer, (1935): 7, 70-83, national government ethnologist, Nicholas Van Warmelo did not use the term "North Nguni". He grouped people living both north and south of the Thukela, under one umbrella term, "Natal Nguni", based on linguistic affinity. His classification was adapted by the ethnology curator, Margaret Shaw, in her 1958 "System of Cataloguing Ethnographic Material in Museums" which determined that items from the region were to be classified as "Natal Nguni: Zulu and others (not differentiated)." According to art historian, Anitra Nettleton, the classificatory system used by art galleries and museum shifted from Shaw's model to the one where "Natal Nguni" fell away and was replaced by "North/Northern Nguni" for KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland because scholars found it difficult to distinguish items from adjacent areas, or emigrant people from those from the KZN region. Scholars working with the JAG materials used broad ethno-linguistic categories (Zulu, Xhosa, Tsonga, Shona, Sotho, Tswana) to identify the makers/users of the objects, all of which came to JAG without much by way of provenance, and identification was based on factors such as object type, materials, formal composition, style and surface patterning (emails A. Nettleton to N. Leibhammer, 25 and 28 November 2014).]

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Isigqiki
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