JXTC GENRE : DECEMBER 08 TEMPLATE

The National Gallery in Bulawayo has just opened the Ndebele Proverbs Visual Arts exhibition to showcase the interpretation of Ndebele lifestyles through the eyes of Bulawayo’s finest artists. The project began with a call for interested artists to create pieces on supplied 50x50cm canvas and the best being chosen for exhibition.Selected artists included seasoned faces like Aubrey Bango, Charles Bhebhe, Owen Maseko, Khumbulani Mpofu, and Frank Nkomo amongst other artists. Officially opening the exhibition was the Director of the gallery and also an artist himself, Voti Thebe, who was dressed in Ndebele warrior regalia.

Honored at the opening were distinguished cultural and heritage practitioners, Peter Zwidekalanga Khumalo, a direct descendent of King Lobengula and popular historian Phathisa Nyathi who took the time to speak about the Chevron pattern which was adorned on the gallery walls alongside the paintings.

He spoke about its symbolism and how it represented the intellect of Africa way before colonialisation and how the zig zag shape brought out the fertility of Africa.

The opening was characterized by traditional Ndebele cuisine of roasted nuts, maize cobs, round nuts, and inkobe. Another delicacy was toasted bread with various dippings like, amasi (milk curd), ulude, and imbhida ledobi (vegetables with peanut butter). The only missing thing was amasese (opaque beer) or amahewu (non-alcoholic sweet sour maize meal drink) instead of the orange-juice-in-wine-glasses served amongst an otherwise very diverse crowd of people from across all races.

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