The master's cloth: a rainbow nation, exploring faith and spirituality through colour, a study of Apostolic and Zionist movements in Soweto
Date
2016-07-29
Authors
Dhlamini, Mbali
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Abstract
Colour has always played an important role in South Africa; from the
beginning of colonialism when “Africans” were converted to Christianity and
baptised in white robes, to the bright colourful church garments that flood
Soweto on Sundays. In the nineteenth century “Africans” began to reimagine
their faith and spiritually. Seeking independence and a sense of identity, they
began to fuse Western Christian ideologies with “African” spiritual beliefs and
attire, which led to the origin of African Independent Churches (AIC). I aim to
demonstrate how colour was not only used as a break away from colonial
influences, but was also used to portray African spiritual beliefs and to create
a distinctive “African” religious identity.
This paper aims to study colour usage and it’s meaning within the South
African context in order to show how colour use within Apostolic and Zionist
movements relates to traditional African spirituality. The paper aims to show
how colours used within both movements are symbolic and are thus used as
spiritual codes. The paper will look at contemporary colours in order to show
how Apostolic and Zionist movements continue to use colour to shape their
spiritual identity.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of Masters of Arts in Fine Art by Dissertation.
Johannesburg 2016