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classroom geometry lessons and as copies for potato prints. More importantly, it was an attempt by
Mothibe to revive interest in what he considered a worthwhile Sesotho tradition. Gary van Wyk employed these drawings during his extensive field research in South Africa and Lesotho from 1991-1994, recording women's responses to the historical patterns, including the names and meanings they ascribed to them, and later republished several of the drawings. He found that although many of the specific vegetal patterns (e.g. "melons") that had been named in the 1970s had been forgotten by the 1990s and subsumed under a general descriptive category of "blomme", the Afrikaans word for "flowers," nonetheless this designation maintained the close symbolic association between women and vegetative fertility, linked to women's traditional roles as cultivators and foragers. Furthermore, a few patterns recorded by Mothibe were still identifiable and being produced in the early 1990s, such as one that refers to the board for marabaraba, a popular indigenous game like checkers (1998:90-91).
274:, or "the blood of the earth", symbolized fertility and the blood of both menstruation and sacrifice, underscoring the key link between the ancestors and fertility and accounting for the fact that red ocher is invariably incorporated into every painting scheme. White symbolized the calm, purity and enlightenment that the ancestors promote and desire, while black represented the dark rain clouds that the ancestors deliver if all is calm and well, and these two colors are frequently combined in dense, alternating patterns applied to transitional zones of the architecture, such as the roofline and around doors and windows. Similarly, such patterns elements as triangles and zigzags likely also carried symbolic meanings that have become obscured in recent times. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Van Wyk also photographed murals that expressed political statements, using the colors of the banned African National Congress during the apartheid era, or incorporating specific political graphics or statements.
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seen as prayers in paint. If the ancestors are satisfied, they provide rain that washes away the murals, and the cycle of life begins anew. It is fitting that murals are produced by women, who are symbolically linked to the house, which is a metaphor of the womb and of creation, and to the vegetal realm to which women are linked through their traditional roles as cultivators and foragers, and through several other vegetal symbols. The
Basotho creation myth, for example, states that the nation emerged from a dark place deep in the earth through a bed of reeds; accordingly it was once customary upon the birth of child inside the earthen house, originally built in an igloo shape, and therefore womb-like, to place a reed in the doorway of the home until the child "crossed the reed" to emerge into the light of day (Van Wyk 1998: 103-107). Similarly, female initiates wear a reed mask, and during their initiation confinement they weave reed mats.
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stripes, triangles, and zigzags executed in limited colors. In his 1861 book, the French missionary Eugene
Casallis recalled the litema patterns he had experienced since settling among Basotho in the 1830s, calling the designs "ingenious", which suggests designs more intricate than the Bakoena examples Stow reproduced (Van Wyk 1998:89). Stow's documentation did not include any designs incorporating plant motifs like those seen in modern-day litema. Van Wyk (1994) suggests that the more modern and "intricate curvilinear designs have a distinctly Victorian or Edwardian flavor that was probably influenced by such turn-of-the-century European products as linoleum patterns, cast-iron moldings and lace".
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fields and of women is celebrated in the creation of radiant blooms, unfurling fronds, spiralling tendrils and sprouts...Because agricultural labor was traditionally women's work, women who decorate houses can be viewed as picturing this work in the fields upon their walls. The murals are thus
African landscapes, composed of the very landscape they represent" (Van Wyk 1994). This is most apparent in litema patterns that consist solely of uncolored combing into mud: these closely mimic the appearance of a plowed field. Van Wyk found that red ocher, called
285:, no persons knowledgeable in the art of litema (Bekker, Thabane and Mothibe) or practising litema artists had any knowledge of a deeper significance other than that of beautifying the home for aesthetic purposes. Some of the artists questioned did however share their opinions concerning the possibility of symbolic meaning. According to artists in the Free State, their mothers (many of whom originate from Lesotho), might have been aware of such meanings, but did not share this information with them during their teaching.
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ornamented with figures of shields, elephants and camel-leopards, etc. It was also adorned with a neat cornice or border painting of a red colour...its walls (of
Sinosee's bedroom) were decorated with delightful representations of elephants and giraffes… In some houses there were figures, pillars, etc moulded in hard clay and painted with different colours that would not have disgraced European workmen" (Van Wyk 1996:43; 1998:88). Campbell's accounts were compiled and published by historian George Stow, in his book
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wall, and later painted with earth ochers or, in contemporary times, manufactured paint. Patterns most often mimic ploughed fields through a combed texture, or the patterns refer to plant life, and more occasionally to other aspects of the natural world, such as referring to clan totem animal. Litema are transient; they may desiccate and crumble or be washed away by heavy rain. It is common for women of an entire village to apply litema on such special occasions as a wedding or a religious ceremony.
141:. Patterns are generally arranged in square cells. A wall to be shaped is divided into a grid to form the cells. Each cell is applied with the same pattern, which is usually rotated or mirrored from cell to cell. The symmetry of the overall pattern thus depends on the symmetries present in the basic pattern. There are designs with only one mirror axis in the basic patterns that result in an overall impression of flowing in one direction. Other basic patterns have several axes of symmetry or a
189:) art, Campbell stated the following:"Having heard of some paintings in Salakootoo's house, we went after breakfast to view them. We found them very rough representations of the camel-leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, lion, tiger, and stein-buck, which Salakootoo's wife had drawn on the clay wall, with white and black paint. However, they were as well done as we expected, and may lead to something better" (Grant 1995:43).
19:
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Tom
Mathews in his writings (supported by photographs taken by his son Paul Chanquion) stated that flowers and dots were symbols of fertility. Furthermore, he states that chevron patterns represent water or uneven ground whilst triangles are symbols denoting male and female (Changuion & Matthews,
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nation), which he likely drew himself, based on an unpublished letter by Stow in the South
African Library in which he recounts visiting a ruined Bakoena kraal (Van Wyk 1998:89). Stow's drawings showed textured panels similar to litema engravings still made today as well as painted patterns of dots,
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The tradition of mural art in
Southern Africa is not of recent origins. While excavations at Sotho-Tswana archaeological sites have revealed hut floors that have survived the elements for as much as 1500 years, the earliest evidence of Sotho-Tswana mural painting stretches back about five centuries
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This symbolic link between the igloo-shaped house and the body later was transferred to modern rectangular homes with flat roofs, where the surrounds of doorways and windows were particularly ornamented, and the name for the litema patterns along the roofline was the "headband". "The fecundity of
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In several works on this topic, Gary Van Wyk (1993, 1994, 1996, 1998) states that
Sesotho murals are a form of religious art, appeals to the ancestors for the rain that delivers the fertility that nourishes the fields and thereby sustains the herds and the human community. Murals, he says, can be
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and neighbouring areas of South Africa. Basotho women generate litema on the outer walls and inside of homesteads by means of engraving, painting, relief mouldings and/or mosaic. Typically the geometric patterns are combed or scratched into the wet top layer of fresh clay and dung plaster of the
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On his second journey in 1820, Campbell, gave an enthusiastic account of what he saw at the house of a certain chief "Sinosee" of the
Hurutse lineage of the Sotho-Tswana. Campbell provided both illustrations as well as a verbal description of the chief's house: "The wall was painted yellow, and
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Almost a century separates Stow's drawings from those done in 1976 by students of the Lesotho National Teachers Training College (Van Wyk 1989:89). Benedict Lira Mothibe, an art lecturer at the college at the time, instructed students to copy litema designs for the purposes of using these in
420:'Fecundity of Fields and Women' Inspires Sotho Mural Arts. 'The Art of Sotho Habitation.' (Exhibition and publication by Gary van Wyk) Columbia University Record—October 14, 1994—Vol. 20, No. 6
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also refers to the associated concepts of "ploughed lands", and the decorative tradition is symbolically linked to cultivation in many ways. It is derived from the verb stem
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The native races of South Africa; a history of the intrusion of the Hottentots and Bantu into the hunting grounds of the Bushmen, the aborigines of the country .
154:(Grant 1995:45; Van Wyk 1998:88). It long predates the tradition of Ndebele mural painting that has been globally popularized. Begun in the 19th century, the
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More recently (2003), Mothibe, in a further contribution towards the cause of preservation, compiled and donated a second edition on litema designs entitled
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One of the earliest written accounts of Basotho mural art is by the missionary Rev. John Campbell. In his 1813 description of Batlhaping (
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Research conducted by Van Wyk and Mathews in the late-1980s and mid-1990s, culminating in two photographically illustrated books titled
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As Gary van Wyk (1993:84) pointed out in his analysis of the etymology of the Sesotho noun denoting "Sesotho mural art,"
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246:(Chanquion & Matthews, 1989), suggests that the art of litema cannot be understood in purely aesthetic terms.
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197:(1905). Stow also published the earliest known drawings of litema – reproductions of eight designs made by the "
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Cornell University Library. London : S. Sonnenschein & Co., limited; New York, The Macmillan Co.
426:, a Website by Carina Beyer, Photography Programme, School for Design Technology and Visual Art of the
415:'Fields of Vision' 'The Art of Sotho Habitation' by Gary van Wyk, review of exhibition and publication.
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art composed of decorative and symbolic geometric patterns, commonly associated with
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Through the Cosmic Flower: Secret resistance in the mural art of Sotho-Tswana women
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615:(Thesis thesis). Bloemfontein: Central University of Technology, Free State.
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On Mathematical Ideas in Cultural Traditions of Central and Southern Africa
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On Mathematical Ideas in Cultural Traditions of Central and Southern Africa
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of /l/ occurring before the close vowels, /i/ and /u/. The orthographic
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Traditional Tema pattern with inversion and rotation of the model base
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design traditions employed in beadwork, pottery and basket weaving.
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Mathematics across cultures: the history of non-western mathematics
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African painted houses : Basotho dwellings of Southern Africa
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can have three possible values in Sesotho: /ɪ/, /ɛ/, and /e/. In
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African Painted Houses: Basotho Dwellings of Southern Africa
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Stow, G. W. (George William); Theal, George McCall (1905).
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Patterns of Possession : An Art of African Habitation
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to the School of Design Technology and Visual Art of the
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629:. portal.cut.ac.za/litema. 16 April 2014. Archived from
559:. portal.cut.ac.za/litema. 16 April 2014. Archived from
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The litema patterns are characterised by a multi-stage
317:. UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, MI, 1996.
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129:is pronounced /ɪ/, as per the Proto-Bantu root.
585:Women, Culture and Geometry in Southern Africa
300:Secrecy: African art that conceals and reveals
471:"Bukantswe dictionary search "ploughed land""
220:Basotho Litema Patterns (With Modifications)
47:for "text" or "ploughed land") is a form of
518:"The role of decoration in Ndebele society"
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498:. linguistics.africamuseum.be. 29 May 2005
371:Women, Art And Geometry In Southern Africa
87:"to cultivate"), which is a reflex of the
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373:. Africa World Press, Trenton (NJ) 1998,
302:. Museum for African Art, New York 1993,
117:) is pronounced in Sesotho since is an
401:Litema: Designs by Students at the NTTCL
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473:. bukantswe.sesotho.org. 1 January 2009
339:. New Holland Publishers, London 1989,
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520:. www.sahistory.org.za. 1 January 2015
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424:LITEMA – The mural Art of the Basotho
612:LITEMA REVIVAL OF A DISAPPEARING ART
95:"to cultivate (esp. with hoe)". The
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358:. Springer, New York 2001,
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