Name: Chongoni Rock Art
History: The Chongoni rock art area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. The area lies at the southernmost tip of Malawi’s central plain, an area also known as the Ngoni Highlands.
It contains 127 declared rock painting sites, about one site per km2, making it one of the richest concentrations of rock art in central Africa. The rock art of the Chongoni sites represents the cultural history and traditions of the peoples of the Malawi plateau: their transition from a foraging lifestyle to food production.When unearthed, these artefacts dating back to about 2,500 BP established the fact that the area was inhabited by the hunter-gatherers of Chongoni who received credit for the artwork during the late Pleistocene era (which is also known as the Late Stone Age period).
The hunter-gatherer art of this area is dominated by finger painted geometric designs typical of the red geometric tradition. Typical designs include concentric circles, rayed circles, sausage shapes, and internally linear divided stretched circle forms. These designs are almost always in red, and where well preserved, there is sometimes a white fill and/or white microdots between or over the red lines.
Use:
The art played a mnemonic role in the teaching of the young girl initiates. The other farmer rock art tradition, the white zoomorphic tradition, depicts spirit characters from the Chewamen’s secret society: nyau.
Nyau art was made during the time that the society was suppressed during the Ngoni wars, the early missions, and the colonial government. The art served to train nyau initiates in the secret nyau terms and in the meanings of the large nyau spirit characters that dance at almost all major Chewˆ a social occasions. Today the art is no longer made; indeed, it is no longer needed because the suppression of nyau has ended and so nyau teaching now happens in its original context.
For more information on the Chongoni rock art, visit https://www.worldheritagesite.org/list/Chongoni+Rock+Art
AASA PRESS UI 