Khawla Ali (Dubai)
Angola’s pavilion at Expo 2020 embraces the culture of a people who were able to make their present and future from the past, using the resources of their land and their will to advance their society and build a country famous for its industries, agricultural wealth, handicrafts, and other arts that were associated with the Chukwe people, (pronounced chuck wai), in Southwest Africa, specifically in northeastern Angola.
decorative arts
The people of Angola are famous for the decorative arts, including woven mats, baskets, pottery, wood carvings, and the striking geometric designs they use to decorate the walls of their homes. They are also famous for the art of storytelling, and they have an ancient ritual in the art of sand painting, known in their language as “Sona”, and is used to illustrate their stories with pictures. The drawings illustrate parables, fables, games, riddles about animals, and much more, explaining the Angolan Renaissance and the spirit of the past that adorns the corners of the pavilion. Visitors learn about the most famous ancient drawings and writings created by the people, as the sandy spaces form pages to express ideas and tell stories for children to promote the values and principles they believe in.
points and columns
The Chokwe narrators not only told stories, but also created traditional drawings that fit each story and have specific rules, where the narrator begins by placing a series of evenly spaced and rectangular dots. Each drawing contains rows and columns of points, to begin with the formation, and the drawing itself consists of lines woven from the inside and outside around the points, and the narrator draws and speaks without stopping. Listeners follow the narrator and watch him with full concentration. If the narrator hesitates, at some point, this is an indication that he has made a mistake.
records
Sona sand drawings and the stories they depicted in the past played an important role in the transmission of knowledge from generation to generation for the Chokwe people. As a result of the ancient colonization of the region, many of the arts of the Angolan people, including sand painting, have disappeared. Many of the drawings that were told by narrators in the past have been lost, and many of them are no longer made today. Some Sona drawings were found preserved in the records of missionaries who wrote about them and copied some of them on paper.
Finger techniques
To perform SONA drawings after the sandy ground has been cleaned and smoothed, the storyteller places the points first with his fingertips, and uses his index and ring fingers to mark the points with the goal of creating an evenly spaced array. To locate and distinguish points from right to left, the narrator keeps the tip of his ring finger on the last point he marked on the ground, and sets a new point with his index finger, and this method ensures that the distance between the points remains the same. When the narrator marks points from left to right, he uses his ring finger to mark the new points first, and to mark points that go up or down, he turns his hand 90 degrees, until he has an evenly spaced set of points in a rectangular pattern. The size of the matrix depends on the story they are going to tell.
Grammar
Graphics, the language of points and lines, are subject to certain rules, and some can be drawn with only one line, so that the narrator begins and ends without having to lift his finger. No matter the size of the matrix, or how complex the model may seem, both the storyteller and the Chokwe who watch it know how it will unfold.
Many geometric shapes, animals and other drawings have appeared that have remained firmly in the minds of the listeners, starting with the first point and ending with the end of the story and closing the matrix.
knowledge transfer
The people of Angola were able to use the “sauna”, which is drawing on the sand, to transfer a lot of knowledge such as arithmetic, social sciences and other topics that narrators seek to instill in children and youth. Despite the development of areas of life in Angola, this art still receives interest in the local community, and it will also be taught to children because it is fun in communicating the idea and knowledge. Graph paper is used in this art, by marking the intersections of lines on the paper with pencil points.
.