PORTRAIT OF A KING
PAGE 404
‘When a person dies, his nails and hair continue to grow if kept carefully.
This hair is shaved and attached to the sculpted head of the dead king, so he would also see different worlds.
To show the continuity of the kingdom, the dead king’s actual hair, beard and moustache is put through the holes in tufts and tied.
His son inherits his father’s head, with his father’s hair still on it.’
DEPICTION OF GOD
PAGE 413
‘We see a symbol of royalty and detail of actual features of a king. Why is he drawn so tall? Why does he have creatures and symbols of light emerging from him? His legs are exaggerated and his feet miniaturized, to show his eternal power. He wears the headdress of eternity on his head, with horns of the bull.’
KING
PAGE 412
‘This is an actual portrait of an ordinary king without any divine things on him.’
REPRESENTATION OF GOD
PAGE 406
‘This is a semi-abstract representing God’
THRONE
PAGE 392
‘This is a throne showing God in his Glory, Lord of the Universe. The background has stars and the zigzag pattern of royalty.’
GOD FAMILY
PAGE 390
‘This depicts god the son, god the father and god the mother and god the daughter.
How do we know they are gods?
God the Father is holding a tree. They are all holding trees. The daughter is holding a message plaque, because she was sent to Earth to try and turn human beings back, away from the bad habits that they were doing.’
ZIMBABWE BIRD
PAGE 197
‘We see a Zimbabwe bird.
To the people of Great Zimbabwe a hawk was a very sacred bird. A hawk or martial eagle was the symbol of their empire and their king.
A hawk or eagle sitting on top of a long pole, is a symbol of the human soul, about to soar to worlds beyond this one. To carve a hawk on top of a pole of stone is the African way of saying long live the king – may he live forever.
This is the hawk of the sea king. The hawk of the god of the Sun.
These are birds found at great Zimbabwe; they date back beyond 1200s, beyond the time of king Mutota who ruled an empire stretching from the southern part of Tanzania, right to where the Kalahari is today. That was the time of the Mambo and Munamataba kings.’
PIPE
Page 211
‘This is a Xhosa pipe, not Southern Sotho. It is the pipe of a man recently married. There is a similar one in the Grahamstown museum.’
IVITI
PAGE 215
‘My grandmother had one exactly like that made from the inside part of an animals stomach.’
TREE OF LIFE
PAGE 397
‘We see representations of Portuguese sailors blowing their whistles. We see the Tree of Life and the Great Earth Mother creating the Earth. Leopards and deer, symbols of the great attributes of true kingship, the hard and gentle, the beast and the antelope all in perfect balance.’
PYTHON HEAD
PAGE 398
‘This is a piece of artillery made of clay, as well as brass. Its purpose was to blow fire at enemies, if they trespassed in the king’s private home.’
