Shona Male and Female Artistry

Abstract

The Shona of Zimbabwe1 have long produced a number of artifacts in which they take great pride. The majority of these are made during the winter months when people are not busy caring for their fields. Both men and women gain reputations as accomplished artists in their specialties and are able to attract clients from wide areas. Women fingerweave barkcloth blankets and mold pottery. Men carve wood and forge iron. This sexual division adheres to the pattern seen in much of Africa. It is apparent among the Shona, as it may be among many African peoples, that gender determines not only the physical nature of the work artists do but also what they perceive as being the source of their artistic inspiration. Male and female concepts of creativity differ. For the Shona, creativity does not connote originality of expression, as it usually does in the West. Working with quite a narrow range of forms, their artists do not often diverge from traditionally accepted formats. Rather, creativity is thought of in terms of the power and impetus to create.2 Shona artists make this clear when explaining how they started in their trade, received inspiration for their work, or gained their reputation. Since their explanations are culturally specific, we must understand not only the nature and uses of Shona art, but also the framework of Shona religious beliefs. Artists often attribute their skills to the two principal types of spirits in Shona cosmology: the shave, usually interpreted as alien or wandering spirits, and the vadzimu (sing., mudzimu), or spirits of the ancestors. The shave are believed to be from outside Shona society-for example, from neighboring groups such