Meat- quickly seared and crisped on the edges, may be a culinary anathema to the European palette, but it is beloved by most in Africa.
Every significant ceremonial, ritual or rites of passage in Southern Africa incorporates the preparation and grilling of meat over fire or flame. This is a warm convivial experience enriched by all of the senses, the smell of it, the smoke and the salivation prior to the event…
For us, nyama/meat is definitely both the prize and the dessert all in one, celebrated by a community of friends and colleagues.
For arranging and dispensing this delicacy, Zulu men carve meat platters that are large oval or rectangular shallow serving dishes, generally standing on four short nubs, or a pedestal.
Although carving within the stylistic tradition of the people and clan, each is custom made according to preference, sculpted, then blackened with pokerwork for effect.
Platters range in scale. Some made in the late 1800s, feeding the warriors in battles were between 1.80 c m to two meters in length. However by the mid-1900s, platters for large feasts had decreased in scale, while those for familial use could range between 20 to 70 cms.
Handles extend out from the sides of the dish. These are geometric in form: rectangular, square or circular. They also project underneath the dish as part of the design, with other carving. Platters sometimes have additional small carved indentations on the side of the bowl for salt or spice.
amasumpa decoration on the underside of a platter
Amasumpa - A collection of small tactile nodules varying in decorative shape according to the region, and craftsman. The origins of these patterns are vague, dating back centuries. In the mid-1800s, artefacts such as metal bracelets with amasumpa designated the status of dignitaries and royals. What one can establish however, is that they are a recurrent visual device, pervasive across the breadth of the Zulu artistic language and adapted into a variety of materials.
For example: they are still used today in the production of terracotta and wooden containers in Zululand. In the case of terracotta, besides decoration, it assists with grip and is found on the sides of beer pots communally passed from one person to another drinking their fill.
An adaption of this idea also occurs in beadwork and garment construction for over a century. For example: The incorporation of clusters of small round brass buttons from colonial uniforms into beadwork, replicate the visual and tactile quality of amasumpa.
Examples of these buttons are depicted in photographs of maternity covers, worn, over the breast and belly in early 1900s. Here, in some cases, they are sewn in distinctive linear patterns like tattoos. Another aesthetic adaption in beadwork, is by mixing different areas of large scale (sometimes plastic) beads, as an accent, with smaller fine glass beads on a particular item.
Carved on the underside of platters amasumpa become an aesthetic consideration. Here the decoration and solution of handles is influenced by the fact that platters are hung up or leaned against the wall when not in use, valued by viewers as a visual display. In this way, seen in two dimensions, large platters could almost look anthropomorphic.
The focus on the back of the platter is a unique concept and in a sense denies the primary function of the container, as an active serving vessel, in favour of the platters stationary phase. This notion contrasts most standard aesthetic practice for serving food where either the inside or the sides of the container are decorated.
chevron patterns on the back of a platter
Besides the custom for displaying the back of platters amongst the Zulu people, It is an idea practiced by the Nupe of West Africa who carve the back of calabashes. The nomadic Wodabe and Fulani people also find creative ways to up-end and exhibit calabashes and the Tuareg, use thin wooden incised bowls for show.
Other functional wooden containers carved by men in Africa, such as kola nut vessels, made by the Ibo people, or fabric /textile containers made by the Yoruba, both from Nigeria, are decorated on the top and sides, as they are both viewed from above.
Women making functional pottery containers all over Africa generally also decorate the top and sides of the vessel.
According to oral history from South Africa and Mozambique, the appreciation of the tactile beauty of keloid scarification, often taking the form of raised round nobs, performed on the torso in the 1800s and the first part of 1900s in the East of the country may have resulted in the adaption of amasumpa onto vessels Whether this influence was used as an artistic devise is, a century later, difficult to quantify.. ©
