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ZIMBABWE
Legacies of Stone, Past and Present
Volume I: Edited by William J. Dewey and Els De Palmenaer
Volume II: Edited by Geert G. Bourgois
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, 1997. Vol. I: 311 pp., 46 b/w illustrations; 1650BF hardcover. Vol. ll: 194 pp., 19 b/w illustrations; 1250BF hardcover. 2900BF (2 vols. with case).
Reviewed by Gary van Wyk
Tervuren's monumental exhibition on Zimbabwean art (November 1997-April 1998), ranging from prehistoric San rock paintings to contemporary curios, survives through this lavishly illustrated two-volume catalogue, which contains nineteen essays on widely diverse topics. One of the problems that a brief review of so ambitious a project faces is that the broader achievement may seem eclipsed by minor criticisms. To forestall that, it should be said at the outset that the volumes combine the most comprehensive selection of objects and scholarship to date on this fascinating region of African arts. This guarantees Zimbabwe's value, and it is a necessary addition to any library worth its salt. Bibliophiles may wince, though, at English translation errors and clunky design: many photographs of invaluable objects are tiny, while a generic curio carving of an elephant, for example, occupies half a page; an illegible nineteenthcentury map occupies a full-color page although it is irrelevant to the essays. The reader must skip around to locate objects discussed in the essays, and several authors refer to objects that are never illustrated. Nonetheless, the photographic record-particularly in Volume I, which includes the best images ever published of many important objects and brings others to light for the first time-is one of the project's many groundbreaking achievements.
The first part of the exhibition, curated by William J. Dewey, and his accompanying Volume I concentrate on archaeological and ethnographic arts. The strong ethnographic section contains five essays on the sculpture and beadwork produced by the region's peoples-the Shona (Dewey and George T. Mvenge), Venda (Anitra Nettleton), Hlengwa/Tsonga (Rayda Becker), Ndebele (Ngwabi Bhebe and Pathisa Nyathi), and Tonga (Peta A. Jones). The first three essays examine the symbolism of objects. Nettleton's research on the Venda, for example, provides specific meanings of such details as the handles and patterns on Venda drums. Similarly, the essay by Dewey and Mvenge shows how such apparently utilitarian objects as axes...