Monday, May 7, 2018

Comrades in the Arts and Culture - four decades ago

Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi: 

Illustrator, graphic designer, photographer and teacher 

“Art is the greatest weapon against any tyrant regime. Arts talks to the heartbeat of a shackled nation and, has a power to liberate.” 

Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi is best known for his representations of political themes that were published in the progressive media in the 1970s and 1980s. He worked as a graphic artist and illustrator for Staffrider and SACHED Trust. 

He along with Kevin Humphrey and Andy Mason started an underground pre-print organization Graphics Equalizer that produced anti-apartheid media for mass democratic organisations.

Muziwakhe has trained dozens of struggle artists, which included Zanele Mashinini, Neo Makhonya, Jasper Galela, Philip Malumise, and Linda Ward and many more. 

Education: 
1994 - 1997: Various computer training courses, Hirt & Carter training school, Johannesburg; Parkhill Technologies, Johannesburg. 
1993: Management of Book Production, British Consulate, Johannesburg. 
1988: Creative Publications Design, SACHED Trust, Johannesburg. 
1980: Archie Legatts Fashion Academy, Johannesburg. 
1976-1977: ELC Art and Craft Centre, Rorkes Drift, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. 
1970-1971: Mofolo Art Centre under Dan Rakgoathe, Mofolo Village, Soweto, Johannesburg. 
1969-1972: Jubilee Art Centre under Bill Hart, Johannesburg. Exhibitions (solo) 

1972: Gallery of African Art, Johannesburg - Exhibitions (group): 

2006: Ubuntu - Striving for life and Peace, Durban Art Gallery, Durban. 
1981: Black art today, Jabulani Standard Bank, Soweto, Johannesburg. 
1979: Contemporary African art in South Africa, De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, University of Fort Hare, Alice. 
1976: New in the sun, Auden House, Johannesburg. 
1975: Tribute to courage (with Fikile Magadlela, Percy Sedumedi, Winston Saoli and Nats Mokgosi), Diakonia House, Braamfontein, Johannesburg. 
1975: Young artists, International Play Group Inc., Union Carbide Building, New York. 
1974: Group of six (with Fikile Magadlela, Anthony Miyeni, Mervin Davids, Johnny Ribeiro and Percy Sedumedi), Atlantic Art Gallery, Cape Town. Botswana National Museum, Gaberone, Botswana. 
1972: Art of the townships, Gallery of African Art, Johannesburg. 

Publications (illustrations): 

1988: Down Second Avenue: The comic, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. Maria Mabetoa, A visit to my grandfather's farm, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. 
1987: Staffrider, vol. 6 no. 4, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. Mbulawa A. Mahlangu, Igugu lamaNdebele, Skotaville Publishers, Johannesburg. 
1986: Gabriel Setiloane, African theology: An introduction, Skotaville Publishers, Johannesburg. 
1985: Essop Patel (ed), The world of Nat Nakasa, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. 
1984: Eskia Mphahlele, Father come home, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. 
1983: Bheki Maseko, The night of long knives, Staffrider, vol. 5 no. 3. 
1982: Mbulelo Mzamane, The children of Soweto, Harlow: Longman, Cape Town. Eskia Mphahlele, Over my dead body, Staffrider, vol. 4 no. 4, pp 10-12. Mothobi Mutloatse, Mama ndiyalila, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. 
1979: Chabani Mnganyi, Looking through the keyhole, Ravan Press, Johannesburg. 

Publications (books, exhibition reviews): 

2004: Elza Miles, Polly Street: The story of an art centre, The Ampersand Foundation, New York. 1992: E. J. De Jager, Images of Man: Contemporary South African Black art and artists, Fort Hare University Press, Alice. 
1975: Elliot Makhaya and Eric Mani, Art in the Van Gogh tradition, The World newspaper, Thursday, July 10. Vusi Khumalo, Big Art show for Jo'burg City, The World newspaper, September 18, p 11. Elliot Makhaya, Mum doesn't appreciate, The World newspaper, Wednesday, March 12. 
1974: Eldren Green, Black artists, The Argus, October 17. Group of six at the Atlantic, Cape Times, October 22. 

Other: 
1999-2005: Senior industrial technician, Gauteng Provincial Government, Johannesburg. 
1987-1998: Graphic artist, Maskew Miller Longman, Johannesburg. 
1986-1993: Graphic artists, SACHED Trust, Johannesburg. 
1986-1987: Graphic artist, The Graphic Equaliser, Johannesburg. 
1979-1981: Graphic artist, SACHED Trust (Turret College), Johannesburg. 
1978-1979: Make-up artist, Hollywood Display (Multiform), Johannesburg. 
1978: Art teacher, The Open School, Johannesburg. 
1974: Art teacher, YWCA Vukuzenzele Children's Art Centre, Soweto. Awards: 
1979: UTA Airways Fashion Design Competition, Johannesburg. 
1970: Merit prize, Chamber of Commerce art competition, Johannesburg. Collections De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, University of Fort Hare. 

Current: Runs a computer generated digital art studio in Soweto. 

Matsemela Manaka (1955-1998): 


Producer, choreographer, painter, sculptor, writer, poet, drummer, playwright, political activist, and Black consciousness cadre. 

“We believe in positive art, theatre of purpose, communal theatre, theatre of survival and liberation."   
The 1976 Soweto uprising gave impetus to the late Matsemela Manaka’s career in theatre and the arts. Matsemela Manaka was a writer, director, actor, poet and cultural theorist. 

He grew up in the Alexandra township of Johannesburg. Attended Soweto's Madibane High School during the mid-'70s and later taught there. Manaka's career was characterised by his involvement in many different artistic and literary activities. 

An unusual talent for poetry, sculpting, painting and drama had been identified at a tender age. With the support of his family, a rigorous programme of self-education saw him emerge as a pioneer in the middle of the education crisis, which resulted from the Soweto riots in 1976. Between I970-81 he was the editor of Staffrider, a black art and literary magazine. 

Matsemela rubbed shoulders with some of South Africa’s greatest artists. Increasing international discourse on apartheid led in 1986 to an invitation to attend a symposium in Dakar (Senegal) together with Breyten Breytenbach, Miriam Tladi, Miriam Makeba, Johnny Clegg, and others. Around that time, Manaka directed Caiphus Semenya’s play, Buwa. The opportunity to direct such eminent musicians as Hugh Masikela and Jonas Gwangwa (who wrote the music for the film Cry Freedom) was a major milestone in Matsemela’s artistic journey. 

Matsemela’s contribution to the Visual Arts is captured in Echoes of African Art, a compilation of visual art images spanning over a century. The work was described by Eskia Mphahle as “… a delightfully informative gallery of African art by South African practitioners”. 

It was Manaka’s fervent wish that “after liberation our theatre shall celebrate our life and remain an integral part of our culture of the new day. The dedication of his seminal play Ekhaya summed up is sense of what he perceived as the challenges ahead: 

The range of Matsemela’s work up to 1991 consisted of several plays and performances. These were, chronically: 
• The Horn; 
• Egoli – City of Gold; 
• Imbumba; 
• Blues Africa; 
• Vuka, Pula; 
• Children of Asazi; 
• Domba – The Last Dance; 
• Siza; 
• Musium Over Soweto; 
• Koma; 
• Toro – The African Dream; 
• Gore; 
• Blues Africa Café; 
• and Ekhaya. 

Over the 1997 – 1991 period Matsemela wrote and generally staged– one play per year. Concurrently he wrote poetry; some of his early work was published in Staffrider, but much has remained unpublished. 

Fikile Patrick Magadlela (1952-2003): 


Struggle artist, musician, poet and political activist. 

 “I started drawing on my parents’ walls from as early as I could remember!” 

Fikile Patrick Magadlela (or Magadledla) was born 13 December 1952 in Newclare, Johannesburg South Africa. Magadlela died in 2003. Fikile grew up in a politicised home. His parents and maternal grandmother were imprisoned in the 1960s and in 1984 Fikile was also incarcerated. 

Fikile, was the leading exponent of the principles of the Black Consciousness Movement in the visual arts in South African observed ‘Black Art is an important facet of Black Consciousness and Black artists are very conscious of their heritage’ (Black Art Today, 1981) 

Reading books his father bought and getting knowledge from older people. He dropped out of High school in standard 8 (10th grade) to work as a full-time artist. Magadlela was relatively self-taught but he spent many hours with fellow artists exchanging ideas and techniques. 

Magadlela worked closely with artists such as Ezrom Legae, Solly Maphiri, Winston Saoli, Percy Sedumedi, Pietro Cuzzolini and Harold Jeppe who became his mentor, introducing him to art circles in Johannesburg. 

His most renowned work was entitled “Birth of The Second Creation” a series of drafted, mystical landscapes showing an African man and woman in flowing drapery and overwhelming clouds. 

Later Magadlela would do bolder landscapes with similar characters using more colour and poetry. His first exhibition first solo exhibition was at the Goodman Gallery then owned by Linda Givon in 1978. 

Berman Gallery 1992. Retrospective at the UNISA Art Gallery 1995 

Ingoapele Madingoane: 


“They came from the west sailing to the east with hatred and disease flowing from their flesh!” 

Poet and social activist, Ingoapele Madingoane, is considered the doyen of modern, politically conscious oral poetry. The late Madingoane was a formidable member of the 1976 Black Consciousness Sowetan poets. He wrote the famous, evocative, mini-epic poem, “Africa my Beginning”, which was published by Ravan Press in Johannesburg in 1979 and banned by the apartheid authorities two months later. 

Madingoane performed the poem widely in Soweto, accompanied by Mihloti Black Theatre’s flutes and drums. It became a regular feature during the protest rallies and funerals of anti-apartheid activists. 

He has had an indelible impact and influence on the post-apartheid generations of poets, including world-renowned poets Lesego Rampolokeng, Siphiwe ka Ngwenya and Kgafela oa Magogodi.

Madingoane was honored with a SALA Literary Posthumous Award in 2007, nine years after his death, owing to a long illness. 

Africa my Beginning 

They came from the west 
Sailing to the east 
With hatred and disease flowing 
From their flesh 
And a burden to harden our lives 
They claimed to be friends 
When they found us friendly 
And when foreigner met foreigner 
They fought for the reign 
Exploiters of Africa 

Africa my beginning 
And Africa my ending 
They asked Mugabe 
Unataka nini hapa 
Wewe mwenyewe 
He said binadamu zote 
Ni ndugu zake za 
Africa Nimefika nirudishie 
Nchi zaZimbabwe 
Mimi ni mwenyewe 


In Africa my beginning 
And Africa my ending 
Suckers of my country 
They laid their sponges 
Flat on its soil and absorbed its resources 
To fill their coffers 
Agostinho had spoken in the language of poets 
That they went away in multitudes 
And forgot their hearts behind 
But late is never a bad start in 

Africa my beginning 
And Africa my ending 
No easy way to freedom 
Ten lonely years black hopeful men 
Food being their wish 
Courage their pay 
Until Africa was respected 
For a leader had emerged 
From the bush to Maputo 
Viva Frelimo 

Africa my beginning 
And Africa my ending 
I remember Ja Toivo 
Namibia is not lost 
Nujoma is not idle he’d be coward if he was 
You might as well know Germany is no more in 

Africa my beginning 
And Africa my ending 

Azania here I come from apartheid 
in tatters in the land of sorrow 
from that marathon bondage 
the sharpville massacre 
the flames of Soweto 
I was there 
I will die there 

In Africa my beginning 
And Africa my ending 

Harry Mohaga: 


Nkoane Moyaga, like Fikile Magadlela, Leonard Matsoso (qv.) and Thami Mnyele responded to the call of the Black Consciousness movement as articulated by Steve Biko: 

“black consciousness has to be directed to the past to rewrite the history of the black man and to produce in it the heroes who form the core of the African background’.1 In line with their convictions they explored the beauty of being black. Instead of representations of poverty in the townships and an oppressed people, they interpreted and celebrated their legendary past.” 

Artist and musician 

Harry Moyaga; saxes, flutes and keyboards. Born on 12 January 1945 in Polokwane, Limpopo. He is also a visual artist who is based in London. Apart from interaction with artists such as Cyprian Shilakoe (qv.), Bill Ainslie and Fikile Magadlela, it was Moyaga’s mother who played the dominant role in his formation as an artist. She kept alive their traditional religion alongside Christianity.

Consequently, her death was a traumatic experience. Moyaga believes that her influence still sustains him in his quest to express the link between daily life and the ancestral presence. In about 1971, when he took his first job at a business concern in Polokwane (Pietersburg), Moyaga began to make drawings that mirrored his spiritual experiences. Once, on an errand to a client’s house, he chanced to see a fascinating painting. This led to a conversation between Moyaga and the client, who asked 
Moyaga to show him some drawings. He bought one of them and then introduced Moyaga to Brother Bral, who became his first teacher. 

Moyaga worked at two tourist shops before he moved to Francistown in Botswana where he now lives. The first was at Papatso, near Hammanskraal, and the second in Pretoria at a souvenir shop in Hatfield, where he modelled in clay. These models were cast in bronze for the tourist market. While working at Papatso he met Cyprian Shilakoe (qv.) with whom a friendship ensued and with whose art he sincerely identifies. 

Nkoane Moyaga, like Fikile Magadlela, Leonard Matsoso (qv.) and Thami Mnyele responded to the call of the Black Consciousness movement as articulated by Steve Biko: 

“black consciousness has to be directed to the past ”¦ to rewrite the history of the black man and to produce in it the heroes who form the core of the African background’.1 In line with their convictions they explored the beauty of being black. Instead of representations of poverty in the townships and an oppressed people, they interpreted and celebrated their legendary past.” 

They developed unique techniques of mark-making which differ from conventional hatching, crosshatching and shading. Moyaga applies a technique, reminiscent of pointillism. These dots radiate rays to simulate tiny stars, dandelion seeds or seeds of the bidens species. By using signs resembling celestial bodies or vegetation, Moyaga links sky and land to symbolize the endless universe and infinite life. Before Moyaga begins to work, he meditates until he establishes contact with the ancestral spirits. Only when he has merged with them does he paint the visions they have inspired in him. In Modimogadi wa nong (plate 219) he interprets the supremacy of the Northern Sotho deity, Modimogadi, the Great Mother. 

Though she protects all living beings, provides food and rules the rainfall, in this instance she appears as the vulture-goddess. Of all the birds, she has endowed the vulture with the keenest olfactory sense. Now merging with the vulture, which is her male counterpart, she leads him to a feast of abundance. There he will rip the liver from the carcass and devour it; then the other birds, already advancing, will join them. 

Exhibitions and Books: 
Elza Miles1 Stubbs, A, (ed.). 
1979. I Write what I Like: Selected Writings of Steve Biko. Bowerdean Press: London. p. 29. Nkoane Harry Moyaga Born Polokwane, Limpopo, 1954. 

Training 
1971-1976: Private Art School of Brother Bral, a Roman Catholic priest, Polokwane. c. 
1977: Bill Ainslie Studios, 

Johannesburg. Exhibitions 
1976: Solo exhibition, Nedbank Building, Killarney, Johannesburg; Solo exhibition, Australian Embassy, Pretoria. 

1977: Solo exhibition, Stuttgart, Germany. 

1978: Man, Beast and Ancestors, Waterfront Gallery, Cape Town; World in conflict, SAAA, Pretoria. Impande yo siko (Roots of heritage), French Embassy, Pretoria. 

1980: Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg. 

1981: Black Art Today, Standard Bank, Jabulani, Soweto. 

1982: Art toward social development. An Exhibition of South African Art, National Museum and Art Gallery, Gabarone, Botswana. 

1995: Solo exhibition, Gauteng Art Gallery, Caroline Street, Brixton, Johannesburg. Collections De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, University of Fort Hare, Alice. 

Andy Mason: 


Communications professional, visual artist, curator, historian, freelance cartoonist, editor, writer specialising in comic art and graphic literature. 

Andy Mason was born on the 11 August 1954 in Pietermaritzburg. He also works as a freelance writer, cartoonist and editor. He has a Masters degree in cultural and media studies from the University of Natal (now KwaZulu Natal). And, 30 years of experience in South African publishing and communications work, mainly in the development sector. 

Andy Mason is head of CCIBA’s Comic Art Unit. After university he focused on creating anti-apartheid cartoons. Mason's work appeared in publications by Ravan Press and Sached Trust, as well as magazines like Staffrider and Upbeat. He founded Durban Comix, as well as the satirical periodical PAX (Pre-AzanianComix), in which appeared his popular 'The Big Chillum' series. 

He published under the pen names N.D. Mazin and Pooh, his underground comix, some of which go all the way back to the 1970s, include Cogent & amp; Crint, Vittoke in Azania, The Big Chillum, The Vittokes, The Legend of Blue Mamba, New Planet TV and The Artist’s Life. His self-published ‘zines, in which these comics have appeared, include PAX (Pre-Azanian Comix), Mamba Comix and The Artist’s Life use. 

He created the popular 'Sloppy' strip (together with Mogorosi Motshumi, published for ten years in Learn and Teach), a humorous opera about the history of South Africa and the comic New Ground. He co-founded Artworks Communications in Durban in 1989, an educational agency focused on subjects such as AIDS, tourism, education and art. From 1994, Mason has produced illustrations and comics on topics such as democracy, civil rights and education. 

He has written, edited, art directed, illustrated and published a wide range of publications, from underground comix, illustrated training manuals and cartoon anthologies to legal and academic textbooks, high-level technical reports and policy briefs. His work as a of South African cartooning is reflected in ‘What’s So Funny?’ 

He joined the Ithunga Art Project in 1999, drawing for Mamba and AIDS Sex News. Until 2007, he worked as creative director at Artworks Communications in Durban (which he co-founded in 1989), but following a midlife artistic crisis he retired from business to become a penniless author. 

Bibliography 2001: 'Africa Ink: Cartoonists Working Group, Towards an Association of African Cartoonists: Report of an International Workshop on Cartoon Journalism and Democratisation in Southern Africa,' International Journal of Comic Art. Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2001 

2003: Mamba Comix. Published by the Artworks Durban cartoon Project and edited by Andy Mason and Rico Schacherl. 

1989 – 2008: Co-founder and creative director of Artworks Communications (Durban) between he assisted many organsations in the development of their organisational identities, communication strategies and publications programmes. 

2009: Centre for Comic, Illustrative and Book Arts at Stellenbosch University, contributed to the development of South African cartooning and comic art through academic research and publication, editing and publishing local anthologies of comic art, as well as organising and curating a number of group exhibitions, workshops and public events. 

2009: Don’t joke! The Year in Cartoons. Eds. Mason, A, Curtis, J. Johannesburg: Jacana Media. 

2010: Just for kicks! Johannesburg: Jacana Media 

2011: Co/Mix exhibition at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. 

2011: What's so funny? - Under the skin of South African cartooning. Claremont: Juta Double Storey

2013: He held his first solo exhibition at the Alive Café in Muizenberg. Under the Skin of South African Cartooning (Double Storey Books, 2010), and he has also co-edited two anthologies of South African political cartoons – Don’t Joke! and Just For Kicks! (Jacana Media, 2009-10), as well as Graflit: Graveyard Literature in Black & amp; White (CCIBA, 2013), an anthology of contemporary South African graphic literature. In 2013 he self-published The Legend of Blue Mamba (PreZanian Communications, 2013), a graphic novel. 


Left to right: Ingoapele Modingoane, Fikile Magadlela, Harry Moyaga, Andy Mason, Mtsemela Manaka an Muziwakhe Nhlabatsi at the Staffrider offices - discussing Harry Moyaga's artwork. Photo by Biddy Partridge.

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