Makonde

MAKONDE TANZANIA AND MOZAMBIQUE The Makondé are part of the Bantu group. They live on the Mueda Plateau in northern Mozambique. There is also a Makondé group in Tanzania, mainly inhabiting the plateau cut by the Rovuma River which serves as the border between Mozambiqque and Tanzania. They are known as aggressive, but the reality is that for a long time they had to fight fiercely against the slave trade and the slave traders, a way of making themselves respected, and also against the European colonizers, with whom they had virtually no contact until the beginning of the century. XXtherefore lived few decades of colonization. They obtain their resources mainly from agriculture and partly from livestock. It is a matriarchal, animistic society in which the rites of passage occupy an important place, especially the initiation of young people and the cult of ancestors, in whose ceremonies and dances participate their ritual masks. And, as in all animist societies, festivity dedicated to the cult of fertility is also important, in which men dressed as women with the famous masks of the belly participate. Currently most of Tanzania's Makondé are Muslim and Mozambique's, Christian or Muslim, but all of them continue their animistic practices. Its traditional masks have been known since the century XIX, but with the exception of his “mapic” masks, in singular “lipico” are known for their modern art. And although most of the Makondé have converted to Christianity or Islam sing practicing worship of ancestors and rites of passage, mainly male initiation, with circumcision upon reaching adulthood. It is at the beginning of these rites that Mapiko dance is practiced, with the traditional and centuries-old Lipico masks, worn by men, but which for some time can also be sculpted by women. Mainly for their artistic qualities are the Makondé of Tanzania. They work especially the ebony and sculpt delicate and complicated families of characters that overlap in a single piece of wood combining with great skill the chiaroscuro of the ebony. From the years onwards 50 and mainly with the creation of the Nampula museum, Makondé sculpture is experiencing a new boom with the creation of various styles, its famous compositions called “devils or spirits”, the shetani, with human traits and very distorted forms, and the so-called “families” or “ujamaas”. Shetani have totally surreal forms, a mixture of zoomorph and anthropomorphic forms that create deformed, cyclopean, abstract figures. Its creator, Samaki, had many followers, including the famous sculptor Lilanga. Shetani comes from the Arabic “Shaitan” meaning devil, which comes in turn from the same Semitic root as Satan. They are pre-Islamic evil spirits that terrorize people, to such an extent that in many Tanzanian houses, mostly Muslim, they hang pieces of paper with verses of the Koran on walls or doors to protect themselves. This new art was based on traditional animistic beliefs and involved representing geniuses and spirits of nature, representing mainly beings related to Makondé mythology. Some pieces are considered as allegorical figures of social situations. Most of these works are carved from ebony wood. Many artists have proliferated given the demand for European tourism. The statues called “ujamaas” or “families” are true works of art that require a great sculptural capacity, also called “dimongos” by the natives. They represent the great African family, i.e. parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, etc., i.e. the patriarchal family, and precisely the characters of this statue are around the main figure, the patriarch or head of the family, usually the oldest, appear intermingled, in a true labyrinth of characters, performing the usual domestic tasks, in groups staggered by floors, carved in a piece of a tree trunk, always in ebony wood. The figures are carved on the inside of the trunk, an area where the ebony is blacker and are often tucked in lighter wood on the outside of the trunk, adding a beautiful light-dark effect. They have a third, simpler style, the Binadamu, of a naturalistic character, which represents characters of daily life, often in some of their usual occupations. Certainly, although the “ujamaa” and the “shetani”, that is, the art in ebony wood, is relatively recent, dating back to the fifties of the last century, it is curious that most books of art and ethnology do not speak of them, not even mention you, despite being a truly spectacular art, made with rudimentary tools. A “ujamaa” or “tree of life”, of an ar of meters of height, true masterpiece of sculpture can lead to its author a dedication to full tempo of a year or more of work. They decorate many commonly used objects such as pipes, sticks, combs, boxes or stools. MASCARA LIPICO MAKONDE The “mapic” masks, in singular “lipico” are the best known and most important of the Makondé. They are ported by men and have a sacred character. It is a helmet mask with a very realistic human face and real hair inserted into the wood, carved by initiated men, in a single block of wood, preferably soft. Today they are also carved by women, although they are carried by men. Their ritual scarifications are carved into them. They can represent real characters, but also some Shetani. They are used in midimu dance, in ceremonies that mark the end of the three years of initiation of adolescents, in which also the masks of the belly that symbolize fertility participate. In the initiation of young women some older women carry, in secret, imitation of men, mapic masks. His initiation, also of three years, also ends with the dance “midimu”. Contrary to modern Makondé art, which has known its expansion since the fifties of the last century, these masks and its ritual dances date back long before the first contacts with missionaries in the century. XIX.