The women of Matobo in Zimbabwe paint their huts with intricate designs using charcoal, ash, water and soil. It’s an annual ritual that replenishes the women’s cultural traditions as season after season, they beautify their homesteads with continually changing imagery.
The women translate the rhythms of their lives into abstract patterns zigzags and diamond shapes, scallops and stepped lines as well as motifs taken from nature. The consistent design covers each hut and there is a clear understanding of space and form, not only in the design but in the placement of the huts within the compounds.
What also stands, however, is the ingenuity the women shows in decorating the interiors of their homes. With so little at their disposal, the women show an inspiring degree of inventiveness in building shelving units and even furniture such as chairs into the hut’s structure.
Great efforts are taken not only in creating an indoor space that is practical and efficient, but also aesthetically pleasing. Check out some reactions from netizens.
This is culture. This is art.
Guys, Africans are the most creative people ever lived.🙌— TK the Christ_Ian (@TheXian2) August 11, 2019
YOU’RE KIDDING ME! Was that in Zimbabwe? Like you’d actually drive there and see that? No need for a passport or plane ride? 😳😳😳 Zimbabweans, how’s that not even a widely-known, celebrated national Heritage! I am utterly ASTONISHED. Comments herein in tandem with me. Wow!✅🇿🇼
— Gerald Maguranyanga SPORTING AGENT (@maguranyanga) August 11, 2019
Some of the most amazing and beautiful homes I’ve ever seen. The fact that Zimbabweans are so surprised really shows how much domestic tourism needs to be promoted in our country.
— Melissa (@MelissaWhyppe) August 11, 2019
This is so beautiful, so wonderful. I need one of this where I can ditch technology and sync with the green mother.
— Ifeoluwa (@ileriOluwajuyi) August 11, 2019
Those huts are so beautiful and neat👏🏽👏🏽
— IG: audriana8726 (@baudzit) August 11, 2019
So beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. 😍😍What a rich heritage and understanding of patterns and shapes and colours. Zimbo’s hidden gems.
— Hadiyya Q. 🇰🇪 (@Kadeejah001) August 11, 2019