Living on a prayer.
By Nyadzombe Nyampenza
Something about Shamilla Aasha’s Cazimula inspires faith and rebellion. The work is crafted out of concrete tablets fashioned to represent hakata (divining tablets). It is a talisman in the form of a necklace.
Hakata can be used for predicting a personal outcome. The diviner begins by addressing a question to the tablets. Next, they pick up the pieces, shake them together, and cast them to the ground. The side on which each tablet falls, and its relative position to other pieces, reveals the answer. A reading can tell if an outcome will be favorable or not.
There is no future outcome to be gleaned from Shamilla’s hakata. The pieces have been captured. A multi colored rope twisting like a double helix entwines the tablets drawing them into a tight bunch. Fate has been denied a chance to influence the present.
Cazimula feels like an anchor. It radiates faith. The artist, defying custom has turned hakata into a shield from anxiety, and the whims of fate.
[Cazimula — Shamilla Aasha, received commendation at the PPC Imaginarium Zimbabwe 2019.]
