Nathaniel “Nats” Mogosi Eulogy

Date of Birth: 1943-02-28 Date of Death: 2016 -03-30 Date of Burial: 2016-04-09, Lenasia.

Nats was a gentle man who was loved by all who came into contact with him, whether fellow artists, students or other people. He was always pleasant, never sought confrontation and the testimony to that is all of us here today. Nat’s and Percy Sedumedi were the first art teachers at The Open School in 1974 and together with Molefi Mololokeng who did drama and Les Carelse who did dance they formed the nucleus of The Open School. We started with a programme in town, mainly after school and on Saturdays but soon started teaching at several schools in Soweto in the afternoons and a farm school in Witkoppen on Saturdays. This didn’t last long as the System got word of us and we were kicked out. No problem, we switched to community centre’s mainly run by churches. On top of that we started presenting drama, dance performances and art exhibitions on Saturday afternoons at these community centre’s. Nats and the art team did props and posters for the shows. We also tried formal art exhibitions but that didn’t work very well. But when we displayed the student work we got a huge response. Better still before a performance we would set out roles of news print on the floor and with charcoal. Nats and the team would get the audience at it, mothers and fathers and other youngsters drawing and we would put the completed work up as our exhibition and that really created excitement. Yes we worked up a storm and really mobilised an interest among young people in the arts. Nats and I worked together for the next ten years and we developed a life-long friendship which endured throughout. Together with Joe Ndlovu he was the longest serving art teacher/head of art at The Open School and he inspired many young people some whom became artists and others who just became good people. I should mention Johannes Phokela who I think is here. He started off with Nats whom I know inspired him when he was about 8 years old and has gone on to great heights. I was always fascinated with Nats’ art work and I always said to him that he was transferring a sculptural tradition to paintings and drawings. I am pleased to say that I have a few of these in my possession which I treasure and they occupy pride of place in my home. I also have a few sculptures that he experimented with at The Open School. We went through very challenging times and defied many of the System laws and attitudes and created a moving space for young people to develop cognitive and expressive skills through the work we did. And we also had a lot of fun though out it all! Farewell dear Nats, you will be greatly missed. By Colin Jiggs Colin Smuts 8th April 16 - 2016