Domesticity in select artworks representing the township experience Pfunzo Sidogi Tshwane University of Technology E-mail: sidogip@tut.ac.za Reporting on the layout of the Douglas Calderwood inspired design of houses in Soweto during the 1950s, the journalist Nat Nakasa observed that: “Almost all the houses are built to the same pattern – thousands upon thousands of small match-box cottages separated from each other by wire fencing.” However, within these mono-styled structures, the experience of the township as “home” manifested in diverse ways and artists were among the most sincere and salient illustrators of these varied but ordinary and everyday happenings. This paper examines the various portrayals of domesticity in select artworks from the mid-twentieth century till the present that narrate the township experience from within the conines of the “match-box” dwellings which line township streets. A portion of the paper engages with the term ‘domesticity” and how its shifting conceptualisations have been aesthetisised. In the main, this paper seeks to elucidate the character of “township domesticity” 1 as experienced and interpreted by select eminent South African artists. Keywords: domesticity, township, art, home Maitele a u sumbedzisa kutshilele na nzulele ya hayani ngakha vhutsila ho khetheyaho zwi sumbedzaho matshilele a lokhishini 2 Muvhigo wa Nat Nakasa u wanalaho atshi khou vhiga ngaha nzulele na mbonalo ya nndu dza Soweto nga nwaha wa 1950 dzo fhatwaho dzo tutuwedzwa nga vhutsila havho Douglas Calderwood. Munwali Nat Nakasa o vhona hezwi: “nndu dzothe dzo fhatwa nga ndila nthihi yau fana – zwigidi na zwigidi zwa nndu idzi dzi na mbonalo ya tshibogisi tshituku tsha thanda dza metshisi, zwa fhambanywa nga vhukati nga luhura lwa darata.” Fhedzi ha ngomu ha zwifhato izwi na vhutuku hazwo vhunji ha vhadzulapo vha sumbedzisa u di geda na upfa vha hayani; munwe na munwe nga ndila yawe, ho katelwa na vhaoli. Vhaoli ndi vhone vhanwe vha vhathu vho konesaho u sumbedzisa ndila yone yone ya kutshilele na maitele o fhambanaho a duvha na duvha a afha fhethu. Linwalo ili li thathuvha ndila dzo fhambanaho dzine vhutsila uvhu ho khetheaho ha fanyisedza nau talutshedza kutshilele na maitele a hayani a wanalaho nduni dza lokhishini ubva nga minwahani ya mahumi ya kale. Tshipida tshinwe tsha linwalo ili tshi di dzhenisa kha u sedzana na maitele aya a u sumbedza kutshilele na nzulele ya hayani (ngakha vhutsila). Linwalo ili li dovha hafhu la sedzana na ndila ine u shandukiswa ha kuhumbulele ngaha maitele ayo o bulwaho afho ntha zwono khwinifhadzwa kana u nakiswa nga vhaoli ubva tsha minwaha yo fhiraho. Tshipikwa tshihulu tsha linwalo ili ndiu talutshedza nga ndila yo tandavhuwaho ndavhuko ya ndila idzi dza u sumbedza kutshilele na maitele a hayani ngakha vhutsila nga ndila ine vhaoli vha zwi vhona nau tangana nazwo ngayo. Maipi a ndeme: kutshilele na maitele a hayani, lokhishi, vhutsila, haya S outh African townships 3 are among the most layered and important spaces in the country; politically, economically, culturally and otherwise. As a place, the township is imbued with historical symbolism memorialised through events like the 1976 student protests in Soweto, the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, the displacements of District Six, and so on. From its pragmatic but racially enshrouded inception during the 1950s, the township has been predominantly perceived as a site of squalor and in some instances as the absolute insignia of black suffering. Before relocating to America in the mid-1960s Nakasa (in Patel 2005: 36) cogently branded the Soweto Township as a “bleak” and “depressing” territory. However, besides this and countless more justiiable portrayals of the township as a regressive space, its constituents have experienced and continue to experience this environment as home. This paper is interested in artworks that mirror the myriad of situated experiences of the township as a domicile. SAJAH, ISSN 0258-3542, volume 30, number 3, 2015: 123-134