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Southern Nguni Farmers
This exhibition illustrates the material culture of Xhosa-speaking
people in the Eastern Cape. The groups within this area include Mpondo,
Mpondomise, Thembu, Bomvana, Mfengu, Xesibe and Bhaca.
Clothing and ornaments from some of these groups are displayed,
including early ornaments made of natural materials such as bone,
shell and ivory, the latter always having been associated with chiefly
status. There is a model representing a Xhosa woman wearing the
clothing appropriate to a married woman, this being a braided, ochred
skirt, cloth turban, breast-cloth, and beadwork. Red ochre was widely
used among Xhosa-speaking people to signify group identity, but early
converts to Christianity adopted western dress and deliberately
rejected the use of ochre. The figure of a young male initiate
elsewhere in the case shows the use of white clay to symbolize a state
of separation and transition, and the dancing costume used at the end
of the initiation school. The rest of the display deals with the
domestic economy and the division of labour, and draws attention to
the importance of cattle in terms of spiritual beliefs and patterns of
marriage.
A small inset case deals with smoking, snuff-taking and the use of
cannabis, that were pursued in approved social contexts.
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