Litema

Basotho women generate litema on the outer walls and inside of homesteads by means of engraving, painting, relief mouldings and/or mosaic.

In his 1813 description of Batlhaping (South Tswana) art, Campbell stated the following:"Having heard of some paintings in Salakootoo's house, we went after breakfast to view them.

We found them very rough representations of the camel-leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, lion, tiger, and stein-buck, which Salakootoo's wife had drawn on the clay wall, with white and black paint.

Campbell provided both illustrations as well as a verbal description of the chief's house: "The wall was painted yellow, and ornamented with figures of shields, elephants and camel-leopards, etc.

Stow's drawings showed textured panels similar to litema engravings still made today as well as painted patterns of dots, stripes, triangles, and zigzags executed in limited colors.

Van Wyk (1994) suggests that the more modern and "intricate curvilinear designs have a distinctly Victorian or Edwardian flavor that was probably influenced by such turn-of-the-century European products as linoleum patterns, cast-iron moldings and lace".

Furthermore, a few patterns recorded by Mothibe were still identifiable and being produced in the early 1990s, such as one that refers to the board for marabaraba, a popular indigenous game like checkers (1998:90-91).

[6] Research conducted by Van Wyk and Mathews in the late-1980s and mid-1990s, culminating in two photographically illustrated books titled African Painted Houses: Basotho Dwellings of Southern Africa (Van Wyk, 1998) and The African Mural (Chanquion & Matthews, 1989), suggests that the art of litema cannot be understood in purely aesthetic terms.

Source:[7] In several works on this topic, Gary Van Wyk (1993, 1994, 1996, 1998) states that Sesotho murals are a form of religious art, appeals to the ancestors for the rain that delivers the fertility that nourishes the fields and thereby sustains the herds and the human community.

This symbolic link between the igloo-shaped house and the body later was transferred to modern rectangular homes with flat roofs, where the surrounds of doorways and windows were particularly ornamented, and the name for the litema patterns along the roofline was the "headband".

This is most apparent in litema patterns that consist solely of uncolored combing into mud: these closely mimic the appearance of a plowed field.

Tom Mathews in his writings (supported by photographs taken by his son Paul Chanquion) stated that flowers and dots were symbols of fertility.

Furthermore, he states that chevron patterns represent water or uneven ground whilst triangles are symbols denoting male and female (Changuion & Matthews, 1989:9,19,55).