dedicated to the healing of
the Black Woman.
BACKGROUND IMAGE:
“iNkhosikazi Saba | Umlindi Wemingizimu ‘The Watcher of the South'”
Discover the Legacy of BaNtu Beading from Classical Æthiopia to the Modern-Day.
“‘We used to be giants!’ My awareness of the original Ancient Imperial Order of ‘AmaKhosikazi’ under the authority of women, is a seed my father planted in my mind as a child. In antiquity and for time immemorial, AmaKhosikazi’s lap is universally venerated for being the first seat of all royals. Like all Africans raised in the culture, MaGogo ‘Grandmothers’ are the first teachers of IsiNtu ‘The Way of The People’.
Superficially translated to ‘Queen’ but more aptly ‘Empress’, AmaKhosikazi literally means ‘Kings Elephantine/Great’ (where kazi is also synonymous with ‘colossal’, ‘paramount’, ‘magnificent’, ‘massive’, ‘mighty’…). Likewise, the Zulu word for ‘Son’ is Ndoda and ‘Daughter’ iNdodakazi. Hence, in everyday life, access to and memory of AmaKhosikazi is coded within the language. This includes Her Isithunzi or AmaKhosikazi’s ‘shade/aura, weight in character’. Marked by the way of the Feminine Principle, She is fierce protector, loving-kindness, beauty, integrity, keeper of secrets, incorruptibility, elegance, master strategist, indomitability, Big Mama/MaMkulu.
Intimacy with my own bloodline of women AmaKhosi ‘Ancestors’ has grown with Ubuhlalu ‘BaNtu Beading’. They are my lecturers, instructors and leads to my creative process. In turn, I use design to capture my learnings about AmaKhosikazi’s reign in the context of AbaKhulu AbaseKhemu ‘The Ancients of Kemet/Ægypt’ (ancient Æthiopia), and their enduring presence and influence. There is a heavy emphasis on tracing the vast, identical and overarching feminine symbols and symbolism from the ancient geography of Æthiopia to the modern-day.”
– Zola Dube
African Fine Artist & Independent Researcher | Medium: Ubuhlalu “BaNtu Beading”
i. Madre De Agua “‘Kunagama Amaningi Emimoya Yamanzi ‘ There are many names for Water Spirits.Water Spirits inhabit Heaven’s rain, mountains, streams, waterfalls, the womb, rivers, oceans… So many names, including but not limited to: Mama Glo/Mama Dlo, Mamba Muntu, Inkanyamba, La Sirene, Mimi Wata, Oshun, Mama/Madre de Agua.“ – Zola Dube
ii. Zanele “She is/it is sufficient” in Zulu. “Zanele, a city of Sicily, in the deepest bay of Pelori, afterwards called Messana by the Messenians, but first called Zacle from the obliqueness of the site, because it was curved in that way like a scythe. See Strabo Book 6. ‘Zanele herself to this day is also derived from the scythe of Saturn, which the poets say fell in Sicily. This fable, Macrobius thinks, arose from there because that island is primarily fertile in crops, and Saturn is thought to have been the first to invent the use of crops in Italy’. Ovid. 15 Metam.” – Charles Estienne, 1603 (translated from the Latin by Z Dube)
iii. Mazwi Angu “‘Mazwi Angu’ is one of my favorite songs, by the illustrious songstress Gloria Bosman. This necklace features red coral beads and red seed beads representing the bloodline. The blue accent seed beads stand for AmaTopiya/Æthiopians People of the Æthereal/Celestial Realm. ” – Zola Dube
Photograph of Cetshwayo ka Mpande. Citation: "Photographed by Alex. Bassano, 25, Old Bond Street" - Frances Ellen Colenso (1885). The Ruin of Zululand. Volume 2. London: William Ridgway.
"Cetewayo" Illustration of Cetshwayo ka Mpande. Citation: "The Kaffirs of South Africa" in The Gospel in All Lands (1885). Methodist Episcopal Church. Missionary Society. United States: Proprietor.