Ndebele

For generations, the women of the Ndebele of southern Africa have produced an art of remarkable richness and vitality. In their ceremonial beadwork and in large murals that cover the exterior walls of their mud dwellings, these women have created designs that are at once ancient and modern in their simplicity, bright colours and abstract patterns.

Ndebele: The Art of an African Tribe not only conveys the glory of the work but also did what so few authors or photographers of African art have ever done – it acknowledged the women who were responsible for it.

Courtney-Clarke gave these women personal recognition. She lived with them while photographing them and became their friend. She meticulously recorded their names and their art so that the book became not only a tribute to the visual beauty but also – without heavy-handed anthropological analysis – a tribute to a group of people who have endured ethnic, political and educational neglect.