Zulu Shield Design

 

 

Traditional Zulu shields date back to King Shaka Zulu and have been used by Zulu tribesman in battle for hundreds of years. As the modern world has evolved so to has the Zulu tribesman and with this the Zulu shield is no longer used in battle and is now used for traditional Zulu ceremonies such as weddings and funerals.

 

Zulu tribe shields of the Zulu peoples of southern Africa have a variety of traditional functions and designs. They are are also commercially available and sought after as collectors' items or for decoration.

 Projects for Zulu tribe shields are most effective when they inform people of the role, meaning or history of the shields. Different sizes and designs have different meanings. With some research and work, you can make a Zulu shield project to meet your specific goals. The objective for

designing a Zulu Shield is for students to conduct internet research of the history of 5 types of prominent Zulu shields (as seen above) which are each used for different occasions:

Ø 1 - Isihlangu - The large battle shield used by King Shaka Zulu. This is about 5ft in size (1.5m)
Ø Umbumbuluzo - The small battle shield that could easily be held in one hand when attacking
Ø Ihubelo - A small courting shield often this is died a red color
Ø Igqoka - A small dancing shield that is used at traditional Ceremonies
Ø Ihawu - A difficult rare shield to find.

In addition, students will research the ascent and innovations of Shaka,weapons and shields, The first challenge of Europe: African impi versus the Boer Commando and The second challenge of Europe: African impi versus the British Empire. Students will then draw 3 thumbnail sketches depicting shield designs of their own. From that point students will construct a 3 dimensional Zulu Shield from construction paper with heavy weight drawing paper as a backing (as seen above and below).

The Zulu impi is popularly identified with the ascent of Shaka (also rendered T'chaka), ruler of the relatively small Zulu tribe before its explosion across the landscape of southern Africa, but its earliest shape as a purposeful instrument of statecraft lies in the innovations of the Mwetha chieftain Dingiswayo, according to some historians (Morris 1965).

 These innovations in turn drew upon existing tribal customs, such as the iNtanga. This was an age grade traditions common among many of the Bantu peoples of the continent's southern region. Youths were organized into age groups, with each cohort responsible for certain duties and tribal ceremonies.

Zulu shields have played a vital role in the traditional Zulu's battles and have always been handcrafted from cowhide or more commonly known in Zulu terms as Nguni cattle. Nguni cattle are native to Southern Africa and play an important role in the daily living of the Zulu people. Nguni cattle are a currency in Zulu traditions and will determine the wealth of a Zulu man by the cows he has. When a young man intends to wed, he has to first pay the father of the bride a set amount of cattle agreed between them before he can have her hand in marriage

All warriors carried a shield made of oxhide, which retained the hair, with a central stiffening shaft of wood, the mgobo. Shields were the property of the king; they were stored in specialised structures, raised off the ground for protection from vermin, when not issued to the relevant regiment. The large isihlangu shield of Shaka's day was about five feet in length and was later partially replaced by the smaller umbumbuluzo, a shield of identical manufacture but around three and a half feet in length. Close combat relied on co-ordinated use of the iklwa and shield. The warrior sought to get the edge of his shield behind the edge of his enemy's, so that he could pull the enemy's shield to the side thus opening him to a thrust with the iklwa deep into the abdomen or chest.

Resources:

Impi: Armed Body of Men

History of the Zulu Shield

Zulu Culture 

Puzzle Art

Art is full of images that can't be named--that don't really look like one particular thing.
Discuss the abstract paintings brought as visual aids. Where do you notice geometric lines in the paintings? (Lines that are mathematical in proportion, using straight or perfectly curved lines like the circle.) Organic lines? (Lines that are bumpy and uneven, typically found in nature.) Which paintings have energy? What lines and colors best convey energy/excitement? What feelings do the different abstract painting styles express to you? Is it because of certain lines? Colors? Which paintings are your favorite? Why? How much of what you like/dislike has to do with the lines? colors? Hopefully kids have different opinions about art--encourage independent points of view--there is no "right way" to interpret and appreciate art!

Using construction paper of various colors, students create abstract shapes in a design using only straight geometric lines--vertical, horizontal and diagonal (pictured right).  The art Teacher will create a demonstration of a completed design. The abstract objects that are created can go from edge to edge of the poster, or the shapes can stop where they intersect with other shapes.  The students will configure the shapes they create geometric shapes--triangles, squares, rectangles, trapezoids, etc on the poster in a unique pattern. Notice the energy/excitement or calmness the designs express that are created, based on the implied line directions. When complete, students will cut out a colored poster background and mount their puzzle design to the poster. During free time in class, students can cut out their puzzles and put them together for fun.  Student finished products will displayed in the library throughout the remainder of the school year.

Resources:

Duchesne County School District: Lesson Design Puzzles

PuzzleArtOnline.com

Puzzle Art Therapy

Stop Human Trafficking Project

On the week of January the 11th US citizens observed National Human Trafficking Awareness Day through acts of education, legislation, and enforcement; whilst, around the world, other people highlighted or tackled this global problem in their own countries. According to an annual report on human trafficking released by the US State Department in June last year, 27 million men, women and children are exploited through human trafficking. Worldwide, at least two million children are estimated to be trafficked victims of the human trade; and, in military conflicts, it is not uncommon for children to be forced to bear arms. In releasing the report last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted the importance of international cooperation in addressing trafficking, and cultural issues associated with it. The students at Hudson K-8 participated in a pilot art project where they created human trafficking awareness posters. An art project of this nature should be of particular importance to students that are in the age category that is targeted by human traffickers globally and in the United States.

Although National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is a US-based effort to recognise, and highlight, this issue — as a topic of global concern being highlighted through the United Nations, others around the world continue efforts to increase public awareness and tackle trafficking.

Forty-six women from the international group Operation Mobilization sought to raise awareness by climbing Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro. The summit is called "Uhuru Peak", with Uhuru meaning "freedom" in Swahili. Each of the non-professional climbers raised US$10,000 to help those affected by human trafficking. In the Middle East, several countries are reported to have problems with human traffickers recruiting unemployed Kenyan men to become human slaves. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are supposedly the more-common destination countries into which Kenyans are lured with offers of high-paying jobs. However, in the United Arab Emirates — where no law prohibits trafficking, but homosexuality is illegal — the problem is compounded.

Enforcement of existing laws, and acting against trafficking, are seen as key steps in reducing the activity. Showing that no country is unaffected, Northern Ireland police are currently investigating five trafficking cases; and, on Monday, Filipino police rescued fifteen women following a tip-off regarding women recruited, and being held, prior to being sent to work abroad.

In the Northern Ireland situation, Detective Superintendent Philip Marshall stated that fifteen men are to be contacted, suspected of having paid for relations with trafficked women. Identifying victims within the UK, or victims seeking help, is becoming more challenging with the sex industry having switched to using hotel rooms as-opposed to street corners. Many victims of trafficking are found to be unaware of where within the country they are. In the Philippines situation, Zamboanga City police are still seeking the recruiter of the fifteen women rescued in Rio Hondo.

A range of complexities are involved in the sentencing of both those convicted of human trafficking, and their victims. In one Canadian case, 43-year-old Hungarian Lajos Domotor pled guilty to trafficking men and women into forced labor. Following being charged with conspiracy to commit human trafficking, he developed terminal stomach cancer and has been given a 10 to 15 percent chance of living five years. Under the United Nations' Palermo Protocols, human trafficking encompasses cases where victims are born into slavery, forcibly transported for exploitation, consented to work with a trafficker, and/or were forced to participate in criminal activities. The Protocols also recognize the unique status and rights of children.

 Source: WIKINEWS

Resources

Global Motherhood

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Children and Families

Stop the traffic: Get involved in human trafficking awareness day

Artist of the Week

Hudson K-8's artist of the week is 7th grader, Steven Hawkins. Steven freehanded an excellent likeness of an expressive portrait found in lesson 2 of the Glencoe's class set textbook series Understanding Art.  In lesson 2, Steven learned how to create a portrait drawing in which the subject matter is using distortion and exaggeration to show a particular mood or feeling.

The color scheme used in Hawkins' artwork is used to emphasize the mood or feeling of the character. The theme used in creating the portrait is also the theme of the lesson, which is creating an expressive portrait.

The lesson was fashioned to experience the style and expression of artist William H. Johnson (pictured above) an African American painter born in Florence, South Carolina, and is becoming more widely recognized as one of the greatest American artists of the 20th Century. Johnson became a student at the Nation Academy of Design in New York. As his style evolved from realism to expressionism to a powerful folk style (for which he is best known), his work always evokes transitory and sublime sensations, that have been often mimicked but never matched. Without question, he has widened the perimeter of how the Negro historical experience will be remembered and how it will be defined in the future.

Before his death he donated all of his work to the National Museum of American Art, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 2006, the Smithsonian American Art Museum organized and circulated a major exhibition of his works, William H. Johnson’s World on Paper. The exhibition traveled to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in 2007.

 

His use of the African American community of both Harlem and South Carolina as well as a very conscience "folk" style of painting helps to show how the concept of "self" was linked to the tradition and change in Harlem. By casting an urban scene within a rural style of painting Johnson speaks to the sense of the new, urban, African American community is formed from the displaced parts of past communities.

Resources:

William H. Johnson: Smithsonian American Art Museum

YouTube: Freehand Drawing

Portrait Art Lessons

Paper Basket Weaving

Weaving is one of the most ancient forms of human creativity. Baskets and textiles would not have been possible without weaving. To a develop basic knowledge and gain experience with weaving. Students will produce a simple weaving project and will be able to discuss the basic vocabulary of weaving. This project will give students experience working with the basic concept of weaving. In this project, the student will use colored construction paper to produce a woven paper basket.

This project can be expanded to challenge the creativity of students by using more colors, making the weft threads thinner and the designs more detailed. The warp can be measured using rulers and will result in more precise designs. The simple over-under sequence can be altered from every other warp to every second or even third warp to form a regular pattern that will differ from the standard "checker board" style design.

Additional Resources:

Lesson Plans: Basket Weaving

Pinterest: Fun baskets to weave

DLTK's Bible Crafts for Kids

Drawing 3D Shapes

Designed as an introduction to shapes, students will develop a mathematic concept of geometry through art. In this activity, students will identify, recognize and draw a two-dimensional square and subsequently a three-dimensional cube. Students will then draw a two-dimensional triangle and subsequently a three-dimensional cone. Finally, students will draw a two-dimensional circle and subsequently a three-dimensional sphere.

Skills that will be taught through this lesson are problem solving, classifying, patterning, graphing and comparison and contrast. Additionally, students will aquire a fundamental understanding of basic shapes by creating isometric drawings of a cube, a cone, and a sphere (as shown above). In an isometric drawing, the object's vertical lines are drawn vertically and the horizontal lines in the width and depth planes are shown at 30 degrees to the horizonal. Lines that are not parallel to these axes will not be of their true length.

Additional Sources:

Isometric Basics

Perspective Drawing

Drawing Basic Shapes

Artist of the Week

7th grader, Na'Quisha Kelley, is Hudson K-8 student of the week. Na'Quisha (pictured above) demonstrated her mastery of the fundamental skill of basket weaving as she worked diligently at weaving her basket (pictured at the bottom) from colored construction paper. While basket weaving is one of the widest spread crafts in the history of any human civilization it is hard to say just how old the craft is because natural materials like wood, grass, and animal remains decay naturally and constantly. So without proper preservation, much of the history of basket making has been lost and is simply speculated upon.

The oldest known baskets have been carbon dated to between 10,000 and 12,000 years old, earlier than any established dates for archeological finds of pottery, and were discovered in Faiyum in upper Egypt.

Other baskets have been discovered in the Middle East that are up to 7,000 years old. However, baskets seldom survive, as they are made from perishable materials. The most common evidence of a knowledge of basketry is an imprint of the weave on fragments of clay pots, formed by packing clay on the walls of the basket and firing.



 

South Africa is famous for its tightly woven Zulu baskets( shown above).  These hand woven African baskets are a true art form and are functional, beautiful and decorative as well as a testament to fine weaving skills.  Zulu baskets are considered some of the most collectable baskets in the world.  Master Zulu weavers are published and collected worldwide. Master Zulu weavers are published and collected worldwide.