'Oh Hurry to the River': The Meaning of uMamlambo Models in the Tyumie Valley, Eastern Cape
Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: This article is about a clay-modelling tradition and Xhosa indigenous spiritual beliefs in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. We focus on one aspect of modelling in clay, by boys and young men, at the villages of Hogsback and eHala. Using ethnographic material and oral interviews, we place the beliefs of the economically impoverished artists and the reflection of these beliefs in their art in historical context, and attempt to explain the meaning of certain attractive objects made by the artists, portrayed as uMamlambo 'mermaids' in the nearest single word to an adequate English translation offered for sale to visitors in the picturesque mountain village of Hogsback.
Authors: Seán Morrow, Nwabisa Vokwana
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W177389447