The rock art of farmers is also typically finger-painted. White is the dominant colour used and the paint is much thicker than that used by hunter-gatherers. Some groups also made engravings on boulders.
Rock art was never as common among farmers as it was among hunter-gatherers and herders. This is not to say that it is any less important. Like the other traditions, the art of farmers is also concerned with spiritual matters, particularly initiation ceremonies.
The Dogon are the only agriculturalist group in Africa who are known to continue the practice of making rock art to this day. The art is made as part of the boys’ initiation ceremony. The symbolism of the art remains a closely guarded secret, hidden from all outsiders.
Warangi rock art is found in central Tanzania. The shelters where it occurs are those used for the boys' initiation ceremony. It seems that the art was integral to initiation instruction in the past, but today it is no longer used.
The ancestors of the Chewa and Nyanja peoples of central Africa were amongst the most prolific of Africa's farmer rock artists. More than four hundred Chewa rock art sites have so far been found spread across central Malawi, eastern Zambia and neighbouring areas of Mozambique. Nearly seventy percent of the known sites fall within the Dedza-Chongoni hills of Malawi and it seems that this was a core area for Chewa art.
Chewa rock art divides into two separate art traditions: the art of nyau and the art of chinamwali. As is typical of rock art traditions made by African farmers, the primary colour used is white and this is applied thickly by daubing. In rare instances where the art is especially well preserved, black finger-painted decoration may be seen executed over the primary white design. The white pigment is a form of powdered clay, which can be dug out of most riverbeds in this area. The same pigment is used in traditional house decoration today. The black pigment is powdered charcoal. Both pigments seem to have been mixed using only water as neither is tightly bonded to the rock surfaces. Rock engravings (also known as petroglyphs) are unknown in these traditions.
The art of nyau is a tradition belonging to Chewa men. Nyau rock art is comparatively rare and fresh-looking when compared with chinamwali rock art. Only a few dozen sites are known. It depicts a range of masked men and, in particular, larger animal basketwork figures. These are readily recognisable as the elaborate masked characters that still perform in the ceremonies of the nyau closed association (see entry for nyau closed association). While the subject matter of the art is known, the art is not made today and it is no longer remembered why the art was made.
It has been argued that the nyau art tradition belonged to the specific historical context of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a time when nyau was forced to become an underground movement because of its suppression by Ngoni invaders, missions and the colonial government. According to this explanation, the art served as a mnemonic device, helping to teach young initiates about the construction and meaning of large nyau structures that could not be made in this troubled time. The art went out of use when the suppression of nyau ended and initiates could once again learn by making and using the real structures. The need for the rock art was thus removed.
The art of chinamwali is far more numerous and, judging by the many layers of superpositions - more than a dozen at some sites - it is a tradition that has a far greater antiquity than nyau art. It seems likely that this tradition of art has been passed down from the time of the earliest ancestors of the Chewa in this region, more than one thousand years ago. This, therefore, is traditional Chewa rock art. This art has been linked to Chewa women and to the girl's coming-of-age ceremony: chinamwali. The painted symbolism is thought to revolve around concepts relating to water and fertility. It contains many instructive messages that teach and remind those attending chinamwali how to behave and conduct themselves.
Similar designs to those in the rock art are modelled in clay and used in chinamwali and similar ceremonies in a number of places within central Africa. These designs each have a name, a dance and an instructive song and the image helps the young girls to remember the many and complex teaching of the ceremony. The subject matter of these designs and their form suggest close parallels with Chewa rock art. It seems likely that the images in the rock art were also linked to song and to dance. Today chinamwali rock art is no longer made, but some of the shelters with this art are still used for chinamwali ceremonies. There are indications that the secret meanings of many of the designs are still understood, but there has been no published confirmation of this to date.
Like most other rock arts of African farmers this art was made as a mnemonic device during an initiation ceremony, in this case a boy's initiation ceremony. Each image was a symbol that could be recognised only by the initiated. Outsiders could see the painted subjects such as giraffe and elephant, but they could not penetrate the secret symbolic meanings and teachings encoded in the subjects.
In addition to its celebrated hunter-gatherer rock art made by the San (or Bushmen), southern Africa has a number of later rock art traditions made by African farming communities. The most extensive of these traditions in terms of area covered and number of sites is the rock art of the Northern Sotho. This art is found spread across the greater part of northern South Africa.
Northern Sotho rock art is easily distinguished from San rock art both by its colour and by its form. It is predominantly executed in white and was applied thickly onto the rock by finger (in contrast to the polychrome brushwork paintings of the San). Occasionally, red and black pigments are also used, usually as decoration over the primary white design. The white used is a form of powdered clay found in many riverbeds in the area. The choice of white as the dominant colour is characteristic of rock art traditions belonging to African agriculturists. Reflecting this, these arts have become colloquially known as the 'late whites'.
Northern Sotho art is found in its greatest concentration in the more remote hill areas of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Areas particularly rich in this art include the Soutpansberg and Waterberg mountains as well of the Makgabeng plateau. In total nearly three hundred sites with Northern Sotho rock art are currently known.
The art divides into an earlier and a later period. The early art depicts a range of wild animals such as elephant, zebra, lion, rhino, kudu, hyena and hippo, but the dominant subject is the giraffe. Almost all of the art is concealed in large rock shelters in remote and secluded mountain areas. These places are the traditional venues for the secretive Northern Sotho boys' initiation practices. Elders in some areas acknowledge a link between this art and traditional initiation practices, but they state that, while some of the painted sites are still used for initiation ceremonies today, the tradition of making rock art has ceased.
It seems that each painted animal carried a particular instructive and symbolic message within the boys' initiation ceremony and indications as to how this symbolism operated survive in the continued use of animal symbolism within modern initiation practices. Within the modern initiation lodge, for example, the fire is sometimes referred to as the lion cub, the magic tree as the giraffe, the cairn of stones as the hyena and the structure under which food is placed as the elephant. Many of the instructive songs learnt by the initiates are also concerned with these same animals. The secret teachings in these songs are often unclear to the initiates, but concealed within this complex structure of animal imagery, are social messages that become progressively understood through life with age and experience.
With the Difaqane and then the coming of white farmers to Limpopo Province in the nineteenth century, life changed dramatically for the Northern Sotho. Taxes, wars and land clearances left many homeless and destitute. At this time whole communities fled to hill areas for safety. Many of the old initiation sites became refuge houses. The rock art reflects these changes. The later art is dominated by depictions of steam trains, soldiers, settlers and guns.
