MAY 2014

AMAXHOSA

I’m sorry.  I apologise. But me I come from a VERY cool stock of humans. Uthininaphakum? This is not my personal family of course, it’s my cultural family.  These images are of Transkei Xhosa, meaning they are images of Xhosa speaking Gcaleka, Tembu, Pondo, Bomvana, Mpondomise, Bhaca, Xesibe and Mfengu circa 1973.  These images are from a book called African Elegance by Alice Mertens and Joan Broster.  In fact, this is the tip of the iceberg.  Most of us Africans looked like this with even madder styling but the more urbanisation we undergo, traditional dress obviously loses its appeal. It’s a pity. When I get married I’m going to have one wedding and it’s going to be tradish all the way. Everybody will have to come dressed in their traditional steeze whether you’re Ndebele, Zulu, French or Congolese.  If you follow the Bantu migration route, basically all of Sub Saharan Africa, things get visually sicker the further up you go.  The last image is from National Geographic and is of a group of initiates who have gone through the circumcision custom that every boy has to undergo before he becomes a man.

#thehistoryissue

>via: http://missmillib.co.za/photography-amaxhosa/