In the animal kingdom, a lion is not born instinctively aggressive, she must be socialized as such: to hunt, to stalk, to pounce on her natural prey. Like Rafiki said in the Lion King, “it’s the circle of life”.
There is something odd about teaching design students Western elements and principles of design for a period of three or four years – honing their design skill and expecting them to design with an Afrikan aesthetic upon leaving college. What, do we think that people are intrinsically Afrikan?
In our own history we have seen how various religious and cultural groups are socialized as such. Children who are of Zulu descent, although raised by Jewish parents, are not Zulu, they are Jewish. It is in their language, their mannerism and their general outlook on life. They would have to “learn” to be umZulu.
Why then do we require an Afrikan aesthetic from people who have learnt that the history of design chronicles the works of the ancient Greek and Roman, the early Christian, Byzantine and Gothic art forms? How are the Italian Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo eras supposed to inspire Afrikan-ness? At some point in our design development we are introduced to the concepts of the Bauhaus and the superiority of Swiss design and are then expected to use those foreign elements in order to design with a “South African feel”. How does that work? Is our Afrikan-ness buried deep inside us all the time, ready to be revealed at will?
My solution is one where the premise of Design Education is vernacular. The student learns of the Neolithic artworks of SeSotho pottery and the symbols thereof, the beginnings of a written South African language encoded on the walls of a Chalcolithic Mapungubwe.
Within the language of the Zulu love beads and Ndebele artistic manifestations is a lesson on colour theory that does not require a scientific prism. Within our own diverse cultural expression is a design history steeped in Afrikan-ness and coated in South Afrikan-ness that the West can envy.
Therein lies our South Afrikan aesthetic from which design students can develop a contemporary South Afrikan design language different to, yet equal to the West (and dare I say even surpass it).
I dream of a Design Education whose premise is vernacular! i, dream.
Writer / Tebogo Serobatse illustrator / Sakumzi Qumana
Point. although i think an african renaissance has emerged if not in the making, still has 2 be worked on academically. spot on.
Yah no - this article hits the point, "Children who are of Zulu descent, although raised by Jewish parents, are not Zulu, they are Jewish." - love this ...
we need to encourage more R&D in Design; and we have to acquire academic skill as Design practitioners so that we can research vernacular histories, and begin to put pen to paper, so our design learners can begin to study about the innovations of their own people
that no doubt could bring about a designer who sees the value in vernacular; and who might be able to advance our design literacy where our ethnic design innovations end
very cool, i think it is important that designers of Afrikan descent actually debate existing assumptions about being "Afrikan" whether it is the attempt to replicate precolonial imagery or the total abandonment of popular culture as if we have not contributed to it....so we keep searchin'.......Nice