Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Practical and engaging, Merryl Goldberg’s popular guide to integrating the arts throughout the K–12
curriculum blends contemporary theory with classroom practice. Beyond teaching about the arts as a subject in
and of itself, the text explains how teachers may integrate the arts—literary, media, visual, and performing—
throughout subject area curriculum and provides a multitude of strategies and examples. Promoting ways to
develop children’s creativity and critical thinking while also developing communications skills and fostering
collaborative opportunities, it looks at assessment and the arts, engaging English language learners, and using
the arts to teach academic skills.
This text is ideal as a primer on arts integration and a foundational support for teaching, learning, and
assessment, especially within the context of multicultural and multilingual classrooms. In-depth discussions of
the role of arts integration in meeting the goals of Title I programs, including academic achievement, student
engagement, school climate, and parental involvement, are woven throughout the text, as is the role of the arts
in meeting state and federal student achievement standards.
Merryl Goldberg is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at California State University San Marcos, USA.
She is founder and director of Center ARTES, an organization dedicated to restoring the arts to education,
author of numerous publications, and recipient of many grants relating to her work with the arts in schools.
Prior to entering academia she recorded numerous CDs and was on the road for 13 years playing the
saxophone with the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
3
Arts Integration
Teaching Subject Matter through the Arts in Multicultural Settings
Fifth Edition
Merryl Goldberg
4
Fifth edition published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
The right of Merryl Goldberg to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Pearson 1992
Fourth edition published by Pearson 2011
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Goldberg, Merryl Ruth, author.
Title: Arts integration : teaching subject matter through the arts in multicultural settings / by Merryl Goldberg.
Description: 5th Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016008569 | ISBN 9781138647374 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138647381 (pbk.) | ISBN
9781315627076 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Arts—Study and teaching (Elementary)—United States. | Multicultural education—Activity
programs—United States.
Classification: LCC NX280 .G65 2016 | DDC 700.71—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016008569
ISBN: 978-1-138-64737-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-64738-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62707-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
5
With lots and lots of love
to my daughter
Liana Cai –
you’re one heck of
an amazing kid
6
Brief Contents
6 The Voices of Humanity: History, Social Studies, Geography, and the Arts
9 Setting the Stage for a Turn of Events: Subject Matter Informs the Arts
11 A Lithograph in the Closet and an Accordion in the Garage: Connecting with the Arts and Artists in
Your Community
12 Beyond Walls: Mural Making and Critical Voices: Collaborative Art Projects
Index
7
Contents
8
Questions to Ponder
Explorations to Try
References
6 The Voices of Humanity: History, Social Studies, Geography, and the Arts
Learning with the Arts
Poetry
Visual Arts
Photography and Media Arts
Music
Drama
Pablo Tac
Learning through the Arts
Response-ABILITY: Empathy in Action Project
Presidential Puppetry
Mural Making and History
Quilts and History
Geography and Papier-Mâché
Summary
9
Questions to Ponder
Explorations to Try
References
Sample Lesson Plans
9 Setting the Stage for a Turn of Events: Subject Matter Informs the Arts
Arts Setting the Stage for Learning
Subject Matter Informing Art
Art as Subject Matter
Learning about the Arts with the Arts
Visual Literacy: Reading Like an Illustrator
Learning about the Arts through the Arts
Summary
10
Questions to Ponder
Explorations to Try
References
Sample Lesson Plans
11 A Lithograph in the Closet and an Accordion in the Garage: Connecting with the Arts and Artists in
Your Community
Utilizing Community Resources
Partnerships in Arts Education and Title I
The DREAM Project
Developing Reading Education with Arts Methods
Identity: Finding Out Who Kids Really Are
The Arts Ain’t Fluff
Community Partnerships Using the Arts
Reflections on the Partnerships
Summary
Questions to Ponder
Explorations to Try
References
Sample Lesson Plans
12 Beyond Walls: Mural Making and Critical Voices: Collaborative Art Projects
The Mural Project
Chronology of Class Work
Epilogue
Epilogue to the Fifth Edition
Questions to Ponder
A Final Word
11
Explorations to Try
References
Index
12
About the Author
Merryl Goldberg is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at California State University San Marcos
(CSUSM), where she teaches in the School of Arts. She is founder and director of Center ARTES, an
organization dedicated to restoring arts to education through working with arts partners, parents, and teachers.
She has written numerous books, articles, chapters, editorials, and blogs. She is the recipient of many grants,
including U.S. Department of Education Arts in Education Model and Dissemination Grants, a joint Spencer
and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur grant, Fulbright-Hays Foundation grants, and California Arts Council
grants relating to her research and work with the arts in schools. Prior to entering academia, she recorded
numerous CDs and was on the road for 13 years playing the saxophone with the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
Now that you have read the official bio, here is a little more of my personal story.
I am fortunate in that the arts have been an integral aspect of my own life since childhood. My father was a
painter and graphic artist. In his later years he dedicated himself to acting in Community Theater and even
became the director of the theater program at my childhood high school, Somerset High School, in
Massachusetts. He began CATS, a children’s theater. What an inspiration he was to me, my family, as well as
to the hundreds of students whose lives he touched! His father, my grandfather, was a musician who played
viola with many big bands including Duke Ellington and Paul Whiteman. Pop was also in the Boston Pops, and
I have wonderful memories of watching him play on the Esplanade in Boston. My mother makes amazing
cards, crafts jewelry, has worked with stained glass, and is one of the most amazing knitters I know!
I bring additional experience to this discussion as well. Since 1980, I have traveled throughout the world as a
professional musician with the Klezmer Conservatory Band playing the saxophone and performing and
recording ethnic music in a variety of settings including the Adelaide World Music Festival in Australia, jazz
and folk clubs, weddings, and radio shows such as Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. At a certain
point in my performing career, I decided to give up the stage and applause as a full-time profession and turn
my energies to education.
Though I continue to perform, my greatest moments are now spent in working with teachers, artists, and
students and creating the open spaces for engagement, and “dissolving margins,” (as novelist Elena Ferrante
writes in her book, My Brilliant Friend) with and through the arts. For me, not much compares to being able to
spend time with individuals as they practice being imaginative and creative, or while they are taking risks and
engaging in a sense of wonder. And, when all is said and done, there is absolutely no limit nor shortage to the
potential and possibilities within all of us.
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Preface
Arts Integration is about children and teachers in some of their most imaginative and creative moments. It is
about teachers being dream-makers and opening spaces in creating a learning community committed to
educational equity. It is about access to knowledge and it is about the journeys of individuals as they seek
adventures in learning. This book focuses on the multiple roles of the arts as languages of learning and
methods for teaching in the multicultural and multilingual classroom.
Educators using this book need not have any arts background or familiarity with specific art techniques. The
book will introduce you to the possibilities the arts hold for you and your students. Its motivating philosophy is
that the arts are fundamental to education because they are fundamental to human knowledge and culture,
expression, and communication. Artistic methods and activities encourage creative and critical thinking skills
while at the same time empowering students to imagine possibilities, seek solutions, and be active discoverers
of knowledge.
Many things have changed since I first wrote this book nearly 2 decades ago, but one thing has stayed
constant: the power of the arts to change people and to change education. In the time since the first edition, I
have gone from being an assistant professor to a full professor, I’ve gone from a land-line (remember those?!)
to an iPhone, and have written everything from grants to chapters, articles, and blogs. I’ve experienced
teaching and learning from multiple vantage points including that of a parent. My daughter, to whom this
book has always been dedicated was merely a twinkle in my eye when the book was first written and as of this
edition, she’ll be finishing up high school. Nearly 12 years of being a parent helper in classrooms K–12 have
provided me with even more urgency to do my part in ensuring that all children have the opportunities to
succeed.
Changes in the Fifth Edition. This edition builds on the previous editions and includes new material,
updated resources, and an ever-growing body of research in the field of arts integration and arts education.
This edition also includes a Companion Website (www.routledge.com/cw/goldberg) that will be frequently
updated. Most notably, this edition includes a brand new opening chapter, Chapter 1, focusing on
differentiating and understanding the opportunities in arts as text, arts integration, and arts education.
Technology, which has dramatically evolved over the time this book has been published has been re-integrated
throughout the book, and updated. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 have been updated and now include attention to
mindset and grit, as well as to standards in education, specifically the National Core Arts Standards, Common
Core, and Next Generation Science Standards. Attention is also drawn to the role of arts in Title I settings. The
subject matter chapters on Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies all have been updated with new
research and examples have been broadened to include more upper grades including high school. The chapter
on assessment has been revised to include examples of peer and student self-assessment.
An underlying premise of this book is that the artistic process is a process of learning, and that all children
can, and want to, learn. “All children, no matter what their background, have the capacity to learn; it is the
teacher’s intellectual challenge to come to understand what must be done to tap that potential,” Mike Rose
wrote in his wonderful book Possible Lives.
Words of encouragement as you consider integrating arts activities into your practice: Be willing to take
risks. It can be a bit intimidating to try new activities, especially if you haven’t had much experience with the
arts. But, I have rarely been in a perfect teaching situation, and I have long gotten over the idea that everything
I might do will work or that the art pieces I create will always be magnificent. Fortunately for you, your
students will probably jump on the bandwagon immediately. Few children shy away from the opportunity to
perform, listen to music, draw a picture, or create a sculpture. Once you get going, the unleashing of your own
and your children’s creativity will not only surprise you but will also expand the expressive opportunities and
intellectual musings in your classroom. Often, the greatest successes result from the greatest risks. Be an arts
adventurer and invite your students along.
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15
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to so many people for their ongoing support. I am delighted to be working with Routledge, and
my wonderful new editor, Naomi Silverman, and her team including Brianna Pennella. I am also happy to
acknowledge Kate Fornadel and her team at Apex CoVantage. Their collective encouragement has meant a lot!
And, speaking of encouragement, this edition really builds upon so many teachers who have made a difference
in my life, many of whom are mentioned throughout the book. Though two of my most incredible mentors
have passed on, I still feel their reach nearly every day. Carol Chomsky, my Harvard Graduate School of
Education advisor, mentor, indeed surrogate mom, taught me how to care deeply about students by how much
she cared about me, my work, writing, thinking, and ability to share it effectively. Jim Hoffman, my mentor at
New England Conservatory of Music taught me how to engage students through incredibly hands-on activities
such as the creative compositions in music theory class. We learned about 20th century theory by writing
compositions in the style of 20th century composers, and our fellow students performed the pieces. I couldn’t
wait for that class! He was about as project-based as a teacher as one could imagine.
Kudos galore to the Title I team in California of Joe Landon of California Alliance for Arts Education along
with Laura Smyth. Caroline King and Linda Gohlke are among the leaders I have the privilege of working
alongside on the San Diego Unified School District “Learning through the Arts” team using the arts to reach
the goals of Title I for thousands upon thousands of students. Thanks to Maureen Lorimar, Paul Ammond, and
Eric Engdahl, all wonderful professors of arts education and integration for their suggestions and reflections
leading into this edition. Thanks also to Shani Leader and teachers at High Tech High San Marcos for their
additions of high school curriculum and methods to engage students in assessment of learning.
Sara Pennypacker, friend and author of Clementine and numerous other marvelous children’s books
including Pax, along with our cohorts Sid Storey, Milton Gurin, and Lorraine Scheppler are behind the scenes
buddies who know how and when to keep me in line (well, at least they try). Thanks to Elise Resnick, the
better half of our book-club duo, to whom I am grateful for her wonderful reading suggestions now in this
edition including My Brilliant Friend, a novel by Elena Ferrante, The Tale of Murasaki, Liza Dalby, and the
poetry of Apollinaire. And, speaking of Apollinaire, my thanks to my neighbors Halle Thompson and Mathieu
de Champsavin for a delightful evening of drinking red wine while translating the poetry from French to
English! Thanks to Martha Barnette for the Ann Patchett and Gary Provost quotes, for being a micro-brewery
muse, and for being the cause celebre inspiration of the “raucous table” who in their own right (Sondra, Lindsy,
Elise, Regina, Ranjeeta!) provided a fair share of amusement during the finishing up of this edition.
Finally, a shout-out and thanks to those who put up with me on a daily basis, my mom and daughter are
stand-outs in that category (!)…as are my network of friends and supporters at California State University San
Marcos. To Chad Huggins, Albert Rascon, and Margie Kidd, you have a special place in heaven reserved for
you for the amount of time and energy you have spent bringing me into technology literacy, especially since I
had the brilliant idea of switching over to a Mac while writing this edition. Thanks always for your kindness
and patience! Last, but certainly not least, my students! I absolutely love you. You provide me with constant
inspiration to continue to ensure that all kids have the opportunity to engage with and through the arts. You’re
going to be wonderful teachers.
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Chapter 1
Art is a process. I thought I was a way cool teacher because I teach art every Friday; and what that meant for me was one lesson and having a
product at the end of the day. It got hung up around the classroom if there was room, and if not it got sent home. And what I would do
differently now is to encourage the kids to develop their idea, to come back and revise and edit their idea much like I do with the writing
process. I would never ask the students to produce a product at the end of the day and that’s what I’ve been doing with art.
Fourth-grade DREAM teacher, San Marcos, CA
Someone once said that there are probably seven natural good singing days in a year—and those are the days you aren’t booked. What we
must learn is how to sing through all the other days.
Renée Fleming, opera singer
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as an itinerant professional performer. Nonetheless, what could have been a terribly embarrassing situation, or
a case in which another advisor would promptly send her delinquent student to a writing lab, Carol instead
exchanged music lessons for grammar lessons. She found a way to put us on equal footing. Every time she
critiqued my writing I couldn’t wait to make it better. If I could bottle up that feeling and present it to each of
my own students I would!
At the time I went through K–12 education the arts were a given. And, thank goodness, as the arts provided
me with solace, inspiration, companionship, and camaraderie. That same year I was up on the stage, during
fourth grade, we had recently moved. Starting at a new school in a new town and making new friends were
daunting. The arts, however, gave me an outlet and a place to retreat. Later I would come to realize that the
arts provided me with much more than an outlet and retreat. Though I didn’t know it at the time, the arts set a
foundation for skills such as discipline and practice. The arts also contributed to a sense of agency, grit,
imagination, problem solving, discipline, empathy, and an ability to communicate effectively. At the time, I did
grasp how the arts and most specifically music gave me confidence, and a sense that I was capable—capable of
achieving and contributing.
When I work with my own students I begin with the understanding that they, too, are enormously capable.
However, in my setting, the majority of students have had little opportunity with the arts. That may or may
not be your situation as well, depending on your educational context. In the beginning of the semester I show
my college students pictures of musical instruments and have them name them. My goal in this exercise is to
understand the students’ starting points. Typically, most students have a hard time identifying and naming the
instruments. Many cannot identify what I would consider well-known instruments, such as trumpets and
trombones. When we identify the instruments, they jot down the names under the instruments’ pictures. To
my great surprise, students had to invent spellings for many of the instruments. Here are a few invented
spellings for the instruments cello, cymbals, xylophone, violin, harp, saxophone, trombone, flute, guitar, oboe,
timpani, and bassoon:
chellow, chelo, cielo, symbols, zilphon, xailaphone, villien, violen, arp, saxiphone, trumbone, fluit, kitour, clairanet, obo, tymphony, timponee,
bazoon.
Soon after the instrument exercise, I ask the same students to make a collage that depicts the arts in their
lives. Inevitably, as soon as I give the assignment, hands go up in the room. “What is a collage?” they ask. The
majority of students had never experienced making or viewing a collage. Once they got the idea, however, they
created colorful and imaginative collages, using magazine pictures, photos, and images they took from the
Internet (Figure 1.1). The arts in their lives as portrayed in their delightful collages tended to focus on a few
themes that surprised me: fashion, tattoos, and cars. I’ll admit my students are quite fashionable; they clearly
pay attention to how they present themselves when they arrive to class. And, without a shadow of a doubt, I
now understand that their depth of knowledge with regard to tattoos and cars is significant.
At this point you might be wondering about my students. It might come as a surprise to you that these
students, so capable, bright, energetic, and full of potential, are nearing completion of their college degrees.
These students are all in a teacher prep program and will become teachers within one or two years. I take it
quite personally, as any one of these students could have been my daughter’s teacher! In fact, several of my
former students have landed in teaching jobs in her school(s). Though my students and I live in Southern
California, the lack of arts education is not confined to our neck of the woods. Students across the nation have
received fewer arts in their education over the last two decades than any time previous. And, though the
amount of arts education has remained somewhat flat according to the National Center for Education Statistics
of the Institute of Education Sciences (2012), the gap in access to the arts among the poor has widened
significantly.
I am heartened that my students can see art in their everyday lives and make the connection that there are
elements of art in fashion, tattoos, cars, and other areas they brought up, such as bartending, makeup, and
flower arranging. What strikes me, though, is that it is quite possible my students never had the experience of
someone putting a paintbrush or a musical instrument in their hands, or the experience of acting or being in a
dance ensemble. Their invented spellings of instruments likely indicate that they have never seen music
textbooks or concert programs. Their exposure to the arts as exemplified through their identification of fashion
and cars could be argued to be a result of consumer marketing as opposed to an education that included art
forms. When I see my capable students, I wonder what opportunities and talent have been lost.
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California State University San Marcos (CSUSM), where I have taught since 1993, is a federally designated
Hispanic-Serving Institution (HIS) as well as an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander–Serving
Institution (AANAPISI). We are largely a commuter school, and the majority of our students have graduated
from local school districts with partnership agreements with the university, by which students gain automatic
acceptance to the university. Seventy-five percent of the local public schools in our service area are Title I
schools, and 67% of our students at the university receive financial aid. The majority of students who attend
the university are the first in their family to attend college.
Though we cannot possibly make up for the lack of access to the arts, we can make a significant contribution
to these future teachers’ abilities to reach their future students. Recognizing that a full curriculum includes the
arts, these future teachers can learn to open the doors that introduce children to the arts and arts-based
pedagogy. In so doing, they might very well be a catalyst of change within their local communities as they
enter the career of teaching.
In the same Title I schools that my students come from, our university in partnership with the San Diego
County Office of Education has initiated several research programs aimed at changing the status quo. SUAVE
(Socios Unidos para Artes Via Educación—United Community for Arts in Education) and Developing Reading
Education with Arts Methods (DREAM) are two examples that are discussed in later chapters. Both are arts
integration programs that received funding from the Department of Education Office of Innovation and
Improvement as model educational programs. A similar program, “Learning through the Arts,” is now in full
force throughout San Diego Unified School District funded with Title I dollars. Each of these programs trains
K–12 school teachers (and I literally mean our teachers are in training) to utilize the arts to teach subject
matter.
The good news is that more and more school districts like San Diego Unified are not only recognizing the
power of the arts to foster student achievement and engagement, improve school climate, and build parental
involvement, but also are initiating programs aimed at ensuring that all students and teachers have access to
the arts as a subject in and of itself.
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and media arts, as subjects in and unto themselves. According to state and federal guidelines—each and every
child is required to have an education in and about the arts. This category is the very core of most VAPA
standards, and is described fully in the National Core Arts Standards, which align nicely with both Common
Core and the Next Generation Science Standards.
Arts as Text
To illustrate the power of the arts as text, I ask two simple questions as students listen to a piece of music,
watch a dance, engage with a theater piece, look at a piece of artwork, or view a video. The two questions are:
What do you notice, and what do you wonder? These two questions are priceless in where they will take you
and your students. I encourage you to try it right away!
Here’s how it works. Since I am a professional musician, I like to perform live. And I can’t say enough for
providing students the opportunity to see live music, or any of the performing arts for that matter. I get in
front of the class or auditorium and introduce myself. However, I do not give away the name of the instrument
I’m about to play nor the kind of music I’m about to perform. I do not mention anything about the person
accompanying me. My go-to piece of music to play in this circumstance is from the genre of “klezmer” music,
which is eastern European Yiddish music. The piece I play, called “Broiges Tanz,” literally means “angry
dance” and has a simple two-chord repetitive accompaniment of Dm and A7. The simplicity usually guarantees
I can find someone to play the accompaniment on the guitar, piano, or even in one case, a charango, a small
ten-stringed lute-like instrument from South America! I’ll get back to the case of the charango in a bit.
Before I play (and of course you can also do this with a recording or video), I ask students to keep two lists:
one of what they notice—that is, about the music itself, its form, what it sounds like, what it reminds them of
(if anything), and so forth. I also suggest they notice things about the way I play or interactions between
myself and the other musician. I also ask them to make a second list of what they wonder: what they wonder
about the music, about the musicians, about how we play, and so forth. Remember, I give them no background
on myself, the instruments, or the piece at this point.
Then I play. I take out my soprano saxophone, count off the beats, and play the piece. I do not have any
sheet music in front of me. I have the piece memorized having learned it by ear. You can listen to a recording
of the piece on the companion website for this book. The piece has a strong rhythm, with what in Yiddish is
called “krechts,” a sliding, groaning quality, similar to the opening clarinet line on Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in
Blue.” The tune is in two parts that repeat over and over, though I never play them exactly the same. If you can
20
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.