The spiritual space of Mubende Hill in Uganda: rethinking “awaka w’ensi aw’omweyimirize, Maama Nakayima” as a symbol of ritual and spiritual performance
- Authors: Nalukenge, Claire
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Mubende (Uganda) , Rites and ceremonies Uganda Mubende , Spiritual practice , Ritual objects and ceremonial , Ritual in art , Spirituality in art
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/467050 , vital:76810 , DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/467050
- Description: This doctoral dissertation in art history investigates the dynamic relationships between ritual objects, rituals, spiritual performances, and their representations in specific cultural contexts. The main research question is: How do the ritual objects at Mubende Hill shape and communicate the meanings of the rituals, considering their performative contexts and embodied interactions? This thesis examines the ritual objects at the spiritual space of Mubende Hill in Uganda, which have various meanings and associations for different groups of people. It critically analyses how related objects are interpreted and represented by select Ugandan contemporary artists, including the 2019 history students of Margaret Trowell of Industrial and Fine Arts and the Uganda Museum. The difference between the above components is that the spiritual space, the artists, and the students represent objects as animate, whereas the Museum represents objects as obsolete. The spiritual space of Mubende Hill is a living space where people engage with ritual objects such as calabashes, clay pots, bowls, milk containers, and coffee beans in performative ways. Some of these objects are placed in various partitions of the sacred Omweyimirize tree at the spiritual space, and the objects become efficacious when engaged with through spiritual and ritual performance. In contrast, the Uganda Museum exhibits objects as inanimate, static, and enclosed in glass compartments. As such, the objects are rendered inactive. I examine the way the museum exhibits, frames, and labels these objects, and how this shifts people’s relationships with ritual objects. In contrast, I also analyze how selected Ugandan contemporary artists and the 2019 history students represent similar objects through their artistic practices, thereby opening up the meaning of these objects. This thesis addresses the critical need for a comprehensive reading and representation of objects within their living social and cultural contexts, a focus often overshadowed by museums. In trying to grapple with questions of representations of objects, I employed qualitative research methodologies, including extensive fieldwork, analysis of primary and secondary sources, participant observation, interviews, and photographic documentation The primary information was gathered from individuals at the spiritual space of Mubende Hill, Uganda, specifically the ritual specialists and the Balyammere, select contemporary Ugandan artists, and final year 2019 art history students from the Makerere Art School and select individuals from the Uganda museum. By comparing objects within their original contexts to decontextualized objects in museums and artistic and scholarly representations of objects, I analyze various art historical approaches to objects that grapple with issues of object representation, functionality, purpose, performance, and the movement of objects. I utilize this analysis of objects to critique colonial and contemporary neo-colonial approaches to ritual objects and develop decolonial understandings of objects that are embedded in personal experiences, stories, and narratives of text accompanied with visuals from the Balyammere’s object-ritual and spiritual performances. The study argues that ritual objects possess active agency, extending beyond mere aesthetic appreciation, and they are intertwined within their performative spiritual and cultural contexts. Analyzing these objects and their roles in rituals and spiritual performances allows us to deeply comprehend their meanings and significances as embedded in cultural, spiritual, and social fabrics. The study emphasizes a need for art histories that prioritize African-based scholars at the forefront of knowledge production and appreciate diverse, non-Eurocentric perspectives, suggesting a multidisciplinary approach to understanding art. A deeper understanding of the relationship between objects, rituals, and spiritual performances cannot only expand the knowledge in art history but also suggest alternatives to conventional object perspectives and practices, arguing for a comprehensive, culturally sensitive, and inclusive approach to understanding objects and art within their performative contexts. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
Uviwe Umthandazo
- Authors: Madinda, Viwe
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Ubuntu (Philosophy) , Interpersonal communication , Mindfulness (Psychology) , Identity (Psychology) in art , Self-care , Spirituality in art
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425344 , vital:72231
- Description: The discourse of identity and community are topics of interest to me. As a citizen living in post-apartheid South Africa, I am captivated by the re-emerging wisdom and knowledge of Nguni cultural philosophies and practices. My practice-based research is interested in a creative interpretation of these ancient philosophies and practices in the context of postcolonial life. The project in many ways re-members through observation of socio-political issues such as inequality, violence, and vandalism as reflections of internal challenges of the individual self in current reality. In essence, my discussion in this paper highlights the need for healing grief and loss for the well-being – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual – of society. Self-definition is the core of any community and we see this in the philosophy of the African proverb umntu ngumntu ngabantu, ‘I am because you are’. ‘I am’ is a set of beliefs that construct the individual self; our life’s course then becomes a constant molding of the body and the world around us. The wisdom of ubuntu was, and is, a catalyst for many African cultures, as this law recognizes each individual as important and equal in the community. As a descendant of various indigenous clans originating in Africa the well-being and balance of my being is determined by how much I know about who I am. Consequently, being a part of the generation that is experiencing the transitioning phases from apartheid I question the ways we are dealing with the residue of coloniality concerning all aspects of self; the physical, emotional, and mental bodies of self. My creative work is a reflection of the exercises I implemented to cultivate selfhood as a way to participate in and control my reality as a marginalized member of society. The different chapters touch on many intersecting theories about tools for healing/soothing the self. The creative process experimented with the various concepts embedded in the expression ‘I am because you are’. In the process of this research, I learned that knowing yourself is one of the principles of ubuntu, which teaches me that I cannot be or give what I do not have. The themes I explore through the above expression are self-love, self-acceptance, and self-respect using a creative lens. This practice-based research proposes a concept; the act of love as a decolonial gesture. My exhibition Vuleka Mhlaba Ndinegene1 utilizes visual language to convey the need for more conversations on healing using natural elements, as a way to make a connection between self, the natural environment, and community. In the first and second chapters, the paper focuses on practices employed by artists such as Lhola Amira, Guadalupe Maravilla, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Tony Gum, Lina Iris Viktor, and Aida Muleneh, to relate the various approaches to re-member the severed connection between self, nature, and community. This study looks at theories on; holding space, sound healing, earthing, shadow work, astrology, and human consciousness. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13