Eye-catching walls
There is a beautiful village about 30 miles from the city of Pretoria,
South Africa. It stands in the middle of wild country called the bush.
In the village, the people of the Ndebele tribe live in small huts made
of clay and cow droppings. Each hut stands in a courtyard surrounded by
a wall. What makes the village beautiful? It’s the big, bright designs
on the houses and courtyard walls.
All Ndebele women are artists. As soon as a wall is built, they decorate
it. The women paint outlines in black, gray, or white. Then they fill in
the design with blue, green, yellow, red, and other colors.
Each design and each color has a secret meaning. Only a few of the old
people know the meanings. But everybody likes to look at the
eye-catching walls.
In cities in the United States, other artists paint exciting pictures on
other bare, ugly walls. These pictures show how the people of the
neighborhood feel about themselves, about other people, and about the
world around them.
United States
Neighborhood artists turn a drab wail into a painting everyone can
enjoy.
