Connection Between Art, Life, and Water
A large amount of Malawian culture revolves around water, more specifically water collection. When you collect water in Malawi you don’t just do it as a way to stay alive, you also do it as a way to socialize. Water collection cites are places where everyone in a town weeds to go often and such they are places where the community can congregate and people can socialize. This importance leads to the reason why the water tower we built didn’t connect to everybody’s homes in the village. If people were able to get water in their homes it would change the way of life drastically and would take away an important part of their culture and social lives.
Now, you may be asking what does this have to do with art? Well a large portion of art in Malawi depicts women collecting water. In Malawian culture water collection is generally a job for women and children and this is represented in the art. The women in the art are generally holding water jugs on their heads in fun poses with bright colors in the background. Some are more anatomical, but many have stick figures like legs and arms. This kind of art is what you will be drawing in the next section.
