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Indigenous southern African  architecture

• A Venda Sketch-Book
• Architecture, Art and Artifact
• Architecture without Architects
• Colonialism as a Factor in the Development of Southern African Indigenous Vernacular Architecture, 1810-1910
• Folk Architecture in Transition
• From Brakdak to Bafokona
• From Matjieshuis to Kapsteilhuis
• KwaMsiza: The History and Architecture of a Ndebele Village
• The Pre-Industrial Architecture of the Eastern Cape
• The Pre-Industrial Architecture of the Transvaal
• Processes and Product in Rural Architecture: A Southern African Case Study
• Some Thoughts on the Process of White-Black Cross-Cultural Fertilisation in Southern Africa
• The Processes of Rural Architecture
• Rural Art and Rural Resistance: The Rise of a Wall Decorating Tradition in Rural Southern Africa
• The Architecture of Southern Africa before the Difaqane
• Southern African Regions of Rural Building Technology
• Structure, Settlement and Society
• An Introduction to Tswana Architecture
• The Ecology of Rural Habitat
• The Zulus of the Highveld: The Role of Architectural Form in the Establishment of a Competing "Zulu" Political Identity among the Matabele 1822-1897
• Transmission and Change in Architecture

 

A VENDA SKETCH-BOOK

Franco Frescura

The Venda are a group who inhabit the region immediately south of the Limpopo River, on the northern borders of South Africa’s Limpopo Province, and are more closely associated with the Shona of southern Zimbabwe. Historically their domestic architecture has consisted primarily of circular dwellings surrounded by deep verandahs, but in more recent times they have been replaced by a set of wide eaves.

Although their circular dwellings were very similar in form to those built by their Tswana, Pedi and Tsonga neighbours, they differ substantially in their method of construction. Before the 1920s, when restrictions began to be placed in the region upon the indiscriminate cutting of indigenous trees, their building was timber intensive. The conical roof, consisting of an almost solid body of mopane wood was taken radially to a central apex marked by a finial, supported temporarily by a central post. The roof was raised upon a solid drum of mopane posts placed in close order in a circle some 4-6 metres in diameter. Additional support to the roof was given at the eaves, where a series of evenly spaced timber columns carried a timber ring-beam which, in its turn, carried the roof structure. The inner drum was also strengthened against torque by a series of sapling hoops placed internally and externally at roof, head and waist height. The whole structure was then plastered, both internally and externally, with a clay and cow dung mix, while a thatch cover was applied over the roof. Unlike other parts of the country where the grass is applied in bundles “seed-end up”, the Venda separate their grass into small bundles and bind the into a continuous loose “skirt” which is wound onto the roof frame from the bottom up. The underside of the roof frame was often also plastered and painted in a series of concentric decorative patterns, also known as “the eye of the lion”. The back of the verandah was often enclosed and used either for storage or as additional sleeping quarters.

Today a shortage of natural wood has curtailed the construction of such timber-intensive structures, and although sun-dried clay bricks have now replaced the timber drum, and the use of indigenous timbers in the roof frame has been heavily rationalized, the verandah dwelling remains the predominant domestic form in the region.

The homestead architecture of the Venda can be said to be unique in the context of southern Africa, for while all other groups use a system of hierarchical differentiation based upon the concept of “left and right”, in their case all distinction is made in terms of “front and back”. Often also, the concept of “front” is synonymous with “downhill”, while “back” is used to mean “uphill”.

Such a differentiation becomes evident at the level of the domestic unit, where the dwellings and activity centers of the wife, (or wives in a polygamous union), will be located before and preferably downhill from those of the father and family head. Similarly the homesteads of a man's sons will be placed in front of and downhill from that of the parent. The settlement of a Venda Chief or Headman tends to follow the same basic pattern as that of his people, except that the process of ascent to his quarters is complicated by the introduction of defensive ramparts and narrow access passages, all designed to protect his person in the case of attack. An old Venda proverb states that "to climb a mountain you must follow a zig-zag path", an obvious metaphor for their chiefs and the structure of their society.

Venda settlement is also differentiated from that of their neighbours in southern Africa by the fact that, in a polygamous marriage, the Venda father has a separate dwelling in his own right, with its own courtyards and, in some cases, its own kitchen and granary. This contrasts sharply with the practice of most other southern African groups where, under similar circumstances, the dwelling of the first wife is recognised to be that of the father. This also means that, with the exception of the Head Wife, no hierarchy of settlement is followed in determining the position of second and subsequent wives, the location of their dwellings being a matter of personal preference and group negotiation.

Venda wall decoration is based primarily upon stylized natural forms, especially flowers and leaves. However a measure of geometrical decoration has also been recorded, including zigzag, convex, wavy and blocked lines. More recent additions include the symbols of hearts, clubs spades and diamonds commonly found on playing cards. Some homesteads in central Venda have also developed a tradition of wall sculpture, where the courtyards are marked by a series of sculpted pilasters, often resembling faces, dwellings and military figures.

POSTSCRIPT

This article was the result of a research trip undertaken to  Venda in June 1989. The original only included a few of the sketches reproduced here, and putting this small article on the website has given me the opportunity of publishing the remainder as a group. To date only a few have been finished off in ink, and, consequently, some of the drawings might appear to be a little fuzzy. FRESCURA, Franco. Venda Sketch Book. Architecture SA, May/June 2004. 42.