ESWATINI: ART AND LITERATURE

I love beads. The colors, the shapes, the materials they’re made with. The variety is infinite. They tell a story, show a social distinction, and are sometimes just simply decoration. Many African cultures make and utilize beads in different ways, like they do in Eswatini. Beads are used in both jewelry making (like in the colorful ligcebesha) but in used in their clothing (like a type of ceremonial skirt called an indlamu) and in their hair.

Weaving arts are also a thing as well. Many of their woven goods are made from different kinds of dried grasses and generally have some kind of utilitarian function: brooms, baskets, and mats (like the emacansi or tihlantsi).

Pottery is also pretty popular. Most of these pots are made from clay (called tindziwo) and mainly used for storing water, cooking and food storage, and making beer. There is a strong handicrafts industry for the people who make clay pots as well as the jewelry makers, woodworkers, glassblowers, weavers, and others. And many of these workers are women, allowing slightly more economic stability for many families.

Literature from Eswatini is generally written in either English or in Swazi. However, works in either language is somewhat limited. For a long time, the only books that were available about the country were written by Brits who have been there. And that creates a cyclic downfall of not having very many people study their literature because there aren’t that many examples. There are obviously some novels, short stories, and poems being published, but it’s rare that it hits any kind of international recognition, outside of authors living in diaspora and perhaps regionally.

Some critics point out that there is a difference in addressing certain cultural and social aspects with a critical voice in novel form that doesn’t quite pan out the same way as it does in short stories. One author who takes more of journalistic fiction form for telling women’s stories is Sarah Mkhonza. I read some excerpts of interviews with her on The Woyingi Blog. She never aimed at being political, but rather she interviewed women and encouraged women to write about their reactions to women characters and the scenarios they find them in, and many of their responses were many times based on personal experiences. She touches on topics of AIDS, women supporting themselves as independent beings, individuality, and domestic abuse. She’s most known for her 2008 novel Weeding the Flowers.

Other authors include Stanley Musa N Matsebula, whose 1989 novel Siyisike Yinye Nje (We Are in the Same Boat) brought the topic of gender inequality into the forefront of conversation. James Shadrack Mkhulunyelwa Matsebula is credited with encouraging other writers to use the Swazi language as the language for telling their stories.

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MALAYSIA: ART AND LITERATURE

While Malaysian art is similar to the art of other nearby countries and cultures, it has its own distinct styles. And even within Malaysia, each region has its own distinct variations. In the rural areas, handcrafted woven baskets are common. Because many people practice Islam, and it’s forbidden to depict prophets and deities in Islam, most of the baskets and tapestries are decorated with colorful patterns and geometric shapes rather than people. It’s also common to find elements of nature like flowers and grasses. 

 

Malaysia is known for its textiles, namely in the practice of songket, pua kumbu, tekat, and other traditional patterned batik fabric. Each style is a variety of dying threads and weaving them. For example, batik is generally based on dying techniques with different strands of thread, and songket uses various metallic threads. Jewelry is also popular and often uses gold or silver, adorned with gems, beads, or pieces of leather, depending on the region. 

Clay pottery is an art dating back to antiquity. The shape of each piece depends on its purpose. Woodcarving is also an old art in Malaysia and one surrounded in superstitions and rituals. Although some areas of eastern Malaysia are known for wooden ceremonial masks, woodcarving is far more used as ornamentation. Woodcarvers spend years learning to have a special bond with the wood. The buyer also has to have a special bond with the wood as well, so there are several rituals that carvers and buyers go through just to get started on a project. It’s like dating or something. 

Because Malaysia is so multicultural, you can also see its diversity come out through its arts and especially its architecture. Chinese and European architectural styles certainly had its effects on its buildings, and there are many Indonesian styles utilized for the purposes of simply being a tropical country. One example of this is the houses on stilts with large windows that can be opened and tall roofs to allow for air flow. Indian and Middle Eastern influences are seen in colorful tiles and large courtyards. 

Literature in Malaysia is mainly written in the Malay language. Before written language was introduced in the form of Jawi (the Arabic-based script used for Malay), stories were told orally. But afterwards, they began to write down these stories that were mainly based on Hindu and Buddhist moral stories. 

Poetry is an art practiced in Malaysia. There are three main types of Malay poetry: mantera (like a mantra), the syair (4-line stanzas rhymed a-a-a-a), and the pantun (quatrains with 8-12 syllable lines).

 

Sejarah Melayu

The earliest known works include Sejarah Melayu and Hikaya Rajit Pasai, both written during the 15^th century. Up until the 19^th and 20^th centuries, literary topics tended to involve religion or stories from the courts. The 20^th century brought about some significant changes in Malaysian literature. The government classified Malaysian literature into three categories: literature written by Malays in the Malay language (called “national literature”), literature written by Malays but in Chinese, Tamil or another regional language of the country (called “regional literature”), and literature written in any other language (called “sectional literature”). 

A. Samad Said, considred Malaysia's national poet

The latter part of the 20^th century brought about a change in topics. Race, the economic state, and everyday life were becoming an important part of Malaysian plot lines. Female authors were starting to emerge as well as the expansion of literature in other languages like Chinese and English. Some names of writers to look for if you’re interested are A. Samad Said, Abdullah Munshi, Abdul Rahim Kajai, Harun Aminurrashid, Abdullah Sidek, Ishak Haji Muhammad, Usman Awang, Poesy Liang, Khoo Kheng-Hor, Khasnor Johan, Huzir Sulaiman, Fatimah Busu, Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, Ee Tiang Hong, and Abdullah Hussain.

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CHAD: ART AND LITERATURE

Chadian art tends to fall into two categories: functional art, and art that is made for tourists. Items that fall into the functional art category would be baskets, clay pots, woven fans, etc. The woven fans and baskets are dyed with pigments from plants, flowers, and other natural ingredients, with purple and green being the most widely used colors.

When I think about making clay pots, I think of slapping the clay on a potters wheel and forming the pottery on that.  But in Chad, many don’t have that luxury. They form it strictly with their hands. And whereas we use a kiln to fire the pieces (which are really expensive – I’ve looked into buying one), they start a fire with pieces of wood and straw and get it really hot. Then they put the piece in the fire. And after a while, they cover the piece and the fire in sand and leave it there overnight.

And of course, there is the other kind of art: that for the tourist. This includes greeting cards, post cards, paintings, various textile arts, jewelry, etc. Most of this art is created by women to supplement the family’s income while the men are out doing agricultural work or other manual labor work.

French is the major language of Chadian literature, although some writers do produce written works in Arabic as well. Chadian authors actually tend to sell more works in France because the instability of the government.  The repressive nature of anyone who dares to speak out against the conditions in the country makes it really hard for these writers to get published. There are many books written about the conditions of their country and criticisms of the government.  Of course, there are also many books written on folklore, legends, and other stories that have been passed down.

There aren’t too many Chadian authors that are well known, and especially outside of Chad and France. Ahmat Taboye is the country’s lone literary critic.  He published his Anthologie de la littérature tchadienne in 2003, noting forty years of Chadian literature. He currently works at the University of N’Djamena as the head of the Department of Letters.  Joseph Brahim Seïd was a writer and politician (serving as Minister of Justice during the late 1960s-early 1970s) who wrote a couple of books in the 1960s. Baba Moustapha was a playwright whose finest work was published a year after his death in 1983, a play called Commandant Chaka. Antoine Bangui was a politician and was imprisoned for three years in the 1970s because he disagreed with President Tombalbaye and got on his wrong side. When he was released he published a book on his time in prison followed by an autobiography. His life afterwards is a mix of various political activities and writing more books. Koulsy Lamko is a playwright and novelist among other things, who studied in Burkina Faso where he met Thomas Sankara. He later studied in Rwanda where he wrote his only novel – La phalène des collines, about the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

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