Dr David Koloane (1938 - 2019)

The artists, staff and board of Bag Factory Artists’ Studios are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr David Koloane, known affectionately to many as Bra Da, at his home on 30 June 2019, age 81. We offer our sincere condolences to his wife Monica, his family, friends, and the many artists whose lives he touched with his generous spirit and unwavering dedication to sharing his knowledge, skills and passion for art. One of the founding members of the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Koloane was a champion for the development of the black art community in South Africa throughout his career of more than 40 years. He is regarded as a pioneer of South African anti- and post-apartheid art and is also revered as a committed educator, curator, arts facilitator, and prolific arts practitioner.

Born in Alexandra, Johannesburg on 5 June 1938, Koloane received his art training from 1974 to 1977 at the Bill Ainslie Studios, which later became the Johannesburg Art Foundation. In 1977 he co-founded the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) Gallery and became its first curator. This was the first art gallery in Johannesburg to provide a space for black artists. Koloane participated in the Thupelo Workshops in Johannesburg the Triangle Artists Workshop in New York, and Pachipamwe Workshop in Zimbabwe, a concept that spread to Botswana, Mozambique, and Namibia. Through a partnership with the London art collector and philanthropist Robert Loder, Koloane was instrumental in establishing the Fordsburg Artists’ Studios (now known as the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios). Founded in 1991, the Bag Factory became an influential studio space which made it possible for black and white artists to work together on a professional level, despite the apartheid legislation of that time. Over the past three decades, the Bag Factory has been guided by Koloane’s ethos of promoting the development of young artists by learning through mentorship and exchange.

In 1985 Koloane was awarded a Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of London and in 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University. His work has been exhibited in South Africa, New York, London, Zimbabwe and Botswana. On 1 June 2019 a much-anticipated retrospective celebrating his work, A Resilient Visionary: Poetic Expressions of David Koloane, opened at Iziko South African National Gallery, presented in association with Goodman Gallery who represented the artist since the early 1990s, and curated by Thembinkosi Goniwe. The exhibition will be shown in Koloane’s hometown of Johannesburg later this year at Standard Bank Gallery and Wits Art Museum.

Through his work, Koloane confronted the urban world in figurative renderings and bold colours to develop a powerful mode of social criticism. His central subject, black life in the city of Johannesburg, is depicted in swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes. His well-known representations of Johannesburg include hybrid individuals such as his iconic mongrel dogs/hustlers, and the results of urbanization: city streets crowded with throngs of commuters and grid-lock traffic, interspersed with the vibrant and pulsing rhythms of jazz, shebeen scenes, community celebrations, and birds in flight. Working in layers of ideas and media, Koloane comments on the emotional resonances of the city in representations that range from the vibrant and hopeful to the grey and melancholic and back again. Koloane’s drawings, paintings and prints recall the forcefully expressionist art of Gerard Sekoto (1913–1993), and the abstract experiments of early mentor Louis Maqhubela (1939–2010) and Sydney Khumalo (1935–1988). His work exemplifies the sensibilities and techniques of expressionist art in South Africa.

Late South African author and friend, Nadine Gordimer, described how "Koloane's interpretation of urban life has struggled and triumphed in finding different visions and modes, techniques, materials to express the huge oppressions, upheavals, and hard-won freedoms that have been epitomised in our cities' sprawl. His art is inward testimony. When we receive his painting and drawings we are not merely looking, we are drawn into discoveries about the process and spaces of living. And its endless mystery."

Why David Koloane always laughed at Bill Ainslie

Sipho Mdanda 4 Jul 2019

Many artists have been known and remembered for their attitudes rather than their works. But not David Ntubu Koloane. Over the years, hundreds of students, mainly from Wits University’s School of the Arts, would rock up to his Bag Factory studio, often without appointments. They needed to consult him on black South African artists, most of whom were his contemporaries, like Sidney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae and Dan Rakgoathe – all who have since passed on. Others popped in to get advice on their work as they were being frustrated by their white lecturers, who sometimes did not understand the issues they were dealing with. Few will ever tell you he turned them down. That is the man Koloane was; a humble and affirming man througout his life.

I met Bra David Koloane in 1996 when I came to live and work in Johannesburg. I ran into him at the Goodman Gallery one day, looking at artwork for inspiration. We began a conversation in which we discussed the work on show. I was impressed with his knowledge in reading the artist’s works against the subject matter and use of materials. Later, I enquired from Sis Bongi Dlomo-Mautloa, who happened to be there too, about “that man over there”. She chastised me for not recognising Bra David, a doyen of African art. I was so ashamed of my backwardness, as I had known of his work from magazines and newspaper articles.

When, in 1998, I became a lecturer at what was then known as Technikon Witwatersrand, I visited Koloane in his Bag Factory studio to learn from him about his contemporaries as a means to counter the mainly white-dominated art syllabus. Those subsequent encounters with Koloane and his peers at the Bag Factory would prove essential in my appreciation of what he has done for South African art and, more importantly, black artists. A number of the artists had been subjected to the white gallery system that exploited them, going so far as to dictate to them what type of art they should produce and subject matter they should produce.

From discussing the challenges and experiences that besieged mainly black artists, it became clear that the few black lecturers employed in the previously white institutions should change the situation. There was limited material on black artists, as not many white or black scholars had invested in them, with the exception of newspaper journalists. Journalists tended to report what they saw and did not critique the work, perhaps due to lack of in-depth training in art history and art criticism. We also had to look for more black role models to inspire and encourage the ever-growing number of black students within these institutions.

Koloane was born on June 5 1938 in Alexandra to working class parents. The family relocated to Soweto in 1954. Here, he enrolled at Orlando High School where he met and befriended Louis Maqhubela (1939 – 2010). Maqhubela had been attending art classes at Polly Street from 1951 and immediately began to mentor Koloane. What Koloane emphasised about this informal mentorship, was that Maqhubela encouraged him to not copy from books and magazines but draw from nature, advice Koloane took seriously. In 1956 Koloane was forced to leave school to find employment after his father suffered a stroke. Being the eldest child in the family, Koloane obliged. After several clerical jobs, he finally left the world of formal work to pursue his first love (painting) in 1974.

He joined Bill Ainslie’s studio from 1974 to 1976, before venturing on his own with friends, setting themselves up in Jeppestown. Over the years, Koloane has generously shared with me how the students of Polly Street informally, over weekends, taught other aspirant artists in Soweto. These classes started as far back as 1955, where Durant Sihlali (1935-2003), Ephraim Ngatane and others started classes to empower artists who could not attend Polly Street.

During his teen years, Koloane would join these artists in learning skills that would serve him well when his time came to be an artist.

Koloane attributes his love for reading as having given him an advantage over many of his peers. He read widely and knew more about art and art movements around the world than most.

Another critical influence on Koloane was Bill Ainslie (1934-1989). Ainslie had opened up his studio to a number of aspirant artists of all races and creeds. When the time came for Koloane to realise his lifelong dream in 1974, when the company he worked for moved to another part of the city, he enrolled at Ainslie’s studio.

In his studio, Ainslie taught only the weakest points that hindered the artist from achieving their goal. This allowed the artist to develop along his own way and not be bogged down by the dogma tertiary institutions are known for. Koloane relished telling the story of arriving at Ainslie’s studio with his portfolio. After Ainslie looked into his work, he asked him, “What is there to teach you?” Koloane would roar with laughter each time he shared the anecdote. Indeed, in 1975, Koloane and Lucas Sithole had their first exhibition, which sold out.

Koloane, like most black artists of the time, produced works that commented on the socio-economic conditions of the townships they lived in. These works featured mainly musicians and various religious groupings. The music captured a variety of groups that competed to jazz and pop in Soweto. In religion, works featured mainstream churches like the Anglican, Lutheran and Catholic as well as Zionists (amaziyoni). The artists of the day were fascinated by the colours and rhythms of the rituals that took place. Koloane was no exception.

The 1980s were a catalyst for Koloane. With the help of Sir Antony Cato and Robert Loder (both British art patrons), Koloane visited both New York and London Triangular Artists Workshops. These workshops cemented, in Koloane’s mind, what he needed to do back home to empower and grow the art practice of his fellow men. This resulted in the establishment of similar workshops to be known by their seSotho name Thupelo Art Project, a turning point in the experimentation by black South African artists, resulting in new and fresh art devoid of the hated “township art” label.

In Koloane’s words, “the advent of Thupelo Art Project provided the structure for initiating workshop programmes. The collective studio project has enabled individual artists to utilise the studios as a laboratory in which the artists can consolidate their technical maturity.”

As the projects grew, Koloane continued producing work, giving seminars, teaching and attending conferences. He ensured more artists benefited from his experience through multiplying and decentralising these centres across the African continent. He also influenced the opening of residencies for artists from around the world. As a token of his hard work in changing the landscape of South African and African art, universities such as Vaal, Wits and Rhodes awarded him honourary doctorates. This is no mean feat for a quiet, methodical man whose vision was to see artists producing work unhindered by issues such as space to work from.

Sipho Mdanda is a curator at Freedom Park and the VIAD associate researcher

Visionaries

MAVERICK CITIZEN

Visionaries don’t complain – they get the work done: Remembering artist David Koloane

By Sipho Mdanda  • 29 June 2020

David Koloane. (Photo: newframe.com / Wikipedia)

On 30 June 2019, David Koloane gave up the fight in a long battle with lung cancer. His passing left many around the world stunned because he had never once complained about his illness. For me, he was both a teacher and a mentor.

It was in David Koloane’s nature to get on with the work at hand. He travelled the world representing South Africa in his many areas of expertise, ranging from exhibiting, curating, facilitating and addressing conferences.

Koloane was born on 5 June 1938 in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg. His passion for art saw him undergo apprenticeships with a number of renowned artists, learning all he needed to know from them. The lack of art schools did not deter him from seeking assistance on improving himself. After doing several clerical jobs, he decided in 1974 to make art a full-time career. That decision not only changed his life but also influenced the art education of many black artists in South Africa and on the continent. He even left his mark in India and China.

Koloane, who had done practically everything that could be done to counter the lack of art education and art institutions catering for black people under apartheid, worked quietly. He did all this without confrontation or pomp, changing the standard of art education, production, writing and curating – only in conference halls did he stand up and speak truth to power.

In spite of his hard work opening doors for young artists in South Africa and around the globe, it took 42 years before he was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at the age of 81 (just a few months before his untimely death). Fortunately, he lived long enough to see his own work in perspective at the National Art Gallery in Cape Town, but not long enough to read the tributes in a catalogue that followed. 

The fact that the three top tertiary institutions in SA recognised him with honorary doctorates was a feat for a black artist in the 21st century.

It was also 42 years ago that David Koloane and Bill Ainslie teamed up and shared their experiences on art education and production in South Africa. One, a black person with little art education and experience, the other, white with a privileged education. Despite their different backgrounds, both had big visions.

Bill Ainslie used his studio to teach not only visual arts to mainly white privileged students, but also to teach them about socio-economic issues besieging the country. In the meantime, Koloane was searching for – and then found – a partner who was amenable to his vision.

Koloane needed to develop the expertise of running an art workshop to make the needed change in his community, which was deprived of art institutions and studio spaces. Although actors, playwrights and poets had to some extent ameliorated themselves from the yoke of white oppression, the same was not true of visual artists. White gallery owners dictated what visual artists should produce and what could be shown; a travesty against creativity.

Koloane’s first realisation of his vision was the establishment of the Federated United Black Artists (FUBA) in 1978. FUBA set about liberating black artists from the clutches of white control and markets. Black artists were, for the first time, able to make art and sell it on their own terms. But this was on a limited scale and they lacked funding and studio spaces.

Koloane believed in building bridges between the formal and informal teaching institutions to benefit both the teaching staff and researching students. The Bagfactory/Fordsburg Artists’ Studios continue to play a pivotal role for tertiary and art schools to send their students to meet and discuss their projects with the artists in residence.

So, as confirmed by art educator Michael Gardiner, Koloane set his eyes on the horizon: “The solution came when both Bill and Koloane attended the New York Artists Triangular Workshops in 1983”, where they learned about collective participation of artists by artists and for the artists themselves.

When they returned to South Africa they started the Thupelo Art workshop. This was primarily to solve two main challenges, namely,  supporting artists with materials so they could experiment with their art and second, to work in secure studios, sharing ideas among their peers. This resulted in highly improved art production by black artists and was a far cry from the hated ‘Township Art’ label.

To ensure continuity, studios had to be found so artists could work freely without the constraints of limited spaces found in their small township houses. These studios also became places where collectors and curators could find and procure artworks, thus making artists self-sufficient without signing their freedom away to unscrupulous gallery owners.

On a national level, what Koloane and Ainslie started, embraced and enhanced is what Sidney Kumalo and Cecil Skotnes did when they opened and ran Polly Street, giving urban black artists their first opportunity to learn art in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Both projects succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations and, to this day, the apartheid project of turning urban blacks into craft makers failed.

Rory Bester, a former art history professor at Wits University, characterises Koloane’s work as a “beacon and a benchmark towards whom and around whom so many artists were drawn in waves of gravitational pull”. A feeling echoed by Neil Dundas’ assertion that “he created space and opportunity for the next generation of black and brown South African artists to study, exhibit and shape the discourse of contemporary African art within both international and local peer groups”.

Koloane’s vision was supported by numerous white liberals who believed in his work. As a result, they continued funding his endeavours and more centres opened, first in Cape Town and later 30 more around Africa. There is even one in India and another in China. This became the model to confront a world-wide challenge facing artists in developing countries.

Koloane’s legacy goes beyond just being a prolific artist, writer, curator and teacher – his studio became the place to go to when one needed any answers to any question.

Koloane had great belief and trust in the younger generation. He provided opportunities and started a bursary scheme that has seen many young students achieve their goals. Art teachers, lecturers and art students were able to visit and interact with artists in proper studios. This ease of access to African artists encouraged a number of young art students to believe they too could follow in the footsteps of their role models.

Koloane believed in building bridges between the formal and informal teaching institutions to benefit both the teaching staff and research students. The Bagfactory/Fordsburg Artists’ Studios continue to play a pivotal role for tertiary and art schools to send their students to meet and discuss their projects with the artists in residence.

Students also benefit from learning about the business of art and the industry’s complex nuances, gaining useful skills no tertiary or art school teaches.

The last word is by Professor Premesh Lalu, who sums up Koloane’s legacy as follows:

“Koloane, I suspect, realised that the artist needed to always work as an educator, not in the mode of the didacticism of school, but as a composite artist learning and teaching to live beyond the constraints of that which is given to one. If the workshop movement that he helped to build exemplifies this sentiment, we will recall that that very concept that Koloane helped to forge was what ultimately pushed us over the threshold of apartheid.” DM/MC

Sipho Mdanda is curator at Freedom Park and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg.

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.

The last One Man Show - of Enoch Mandlenkosi Tshabalala

In loving memory Funeral programme of the late Enoch Mandlenkosi Tshabalala Born: 08 December 1941 Died: 29 July 2015 Date: 8 August 2015 The last One Man Show - Obituary Enoch Mandlenkosi Tshabalala was the second born. Born under the cosmic Sagittarius star sign on the 08th December 1941 in Balfour, Mpumalanga to the loving beautiful couple namely; Lesiah his mother and the formidable Elijah Tshabalala his father. His late brother was Albert Mafika Tshabalala the first born. In 1945, his family moved to Johannesburg when he was four years old. They first moved into the popular Kliptown township - on the periphery of Johannesburg were the Freedom Charter was written, and settled Masakeni, in Moroka - later in Soweto in Zola 2, in the year that it was established. Soon, after this Tshabalala contracted Polio. After treatment at the Johannesburg General Hospital, he was bedridden for a long time. This was a major set-back in terms of his schooling life. When he regained the use of his arms, his mother brought him coloured crayons and paper, and he began to draw his surroundings which showed his hidden artistic talent. He also took a keen interest in music. In 1959, and later he became instrumental in the formation of a music group, the Moroka Bright Boys, and they also premiered in shows for the Manhattan Brothers; he loved jazz and gospel music. A neat and fine dresser, who chose only the best, ask those who know him very well. His career spanned five decades in the arts and craft field. He was employed to paint Curios in an Art & Craft store, where he met his longtime colleague the late Durant Sihlali. He was later encouraged to study under the late famous artist Cecil Skotnes at the Polly Street Art Centre where most Soweto’s budding artists crafted their skills – due to apartheid laws they could not study in white’s only Colleges of Art and Universities. A major influence on his artistic career was his meeting with the late Dumile Feni and Durant Sihlali, in 1964, and after this his style of art shifted towards Feni’s to a notable degree, this is evident in the Expressionism in a couple of artworks by Tshabalala. In 1980 he got married to the ever loving beautiful daughter of the Meso family – Sibongile Margaret Tshabalala who was the love and support of his life through thick and thin situations of their life, she looked after him from the day they met right to the last days. She gave him the most beautiful family of four boys, right from Nhlanhla, Siyabonga, Sicelo and Mduduzi. He loved them with all his heart. He thanked God that he had the rare opportunity to steal hugs and kisses from his grand-children’s innocent and smashingly gorgeous little faces – right from Ntokozo, Thando and Lungelo. He continued to live and work in Soweto, Zola 2, until he met his untimely death. Tshabalala started sketching and drawing the people around him, and the birds and trees he saw looking out his window. He worked well with all mediums, but prefered watercolour and acrylics. Tshabalala has participated in many group exhibitions throughout Cape Town and Johannesburg. His work is found in several corporate art collections in and around South Africa, as well as in private collections around the world. And to add more challenge, Enoch added taxi signwriting, with some creative flare using his now famous ‘Umbhalo ohlangene’ a reference to the cursive writing that has become his trade mark or brand style. Malebese is one of the corporate NPO’s he painted for, including Shandu’s Taxis, Mr. Mazibuko’s Taxis, and the Faraday Taxi Association where he wrote nearly all their taxis including the Dorjota Taxi Association – later due to ill health one of his sons assisted him in the signwriting jobs. Lala ngoxolo, Dvonga. Mabuza, Mshengu Tshabalala Ludvonga lwaMavuso waNgwane Sidvwaba sil’thuli Singaba Mtolo, sifute ekhabonyoko Sithi sibancwaba beza naMlandzakati, Nine baseMhlongamvula, enathi uMhlangamvula udilikile Kanti benemanga boTshabalala, bafihl’ indod’ emsamo Bentel’ abantfwana babafokatane bezabalele Bet(z)a behlab’ emva nangembili Sithi bayeta baphelel’ endleleni Smahla’ esihle esimabizwa yiNdlovu Oyay’ eMbo wabuyelela Lowacedza LuBombo ngokuhlehletela Nahlokota timbhil’ emgedzeni Taphuma tasabalala busaphalala Nkonkoni enhle yaseMangwaneni naseMavaneni Oval’ isibaya ngamakhand' amadoda, Abanye bavala ngamahlahla Simancamanca mathang' amahle Ngathi awentombazane Nkonjan’ emhlophe edlalel’ emafini Engabonwa muntu, kodvwa Mswati kuphela Awucedvwa Mshengu

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

Wonga Mancoba dies in Paris | The Journalist

Artist Wonga Mancoba dies in Paris

Mar 10, 2015

By Phindile Xaba

His body of work was inspired by the African paradigm, nuance, and idiom.

Wonga Mancoba, 69, a painter whose body of work was inspired by the African paradigm, nuance, and idiom, has passed away in Paris after a long battle with his health.

Wonga was born to South African exiled painter, sculptor and thinker Ernest Mancoba and his wife Danish sculptor, Sonja Verlov, in Paris in the attic of famous Swiss sculptor Giacometti. He would follow in his parents’ footsteps and become a refined painter.

His first visit to South Africa

Wonga was not able to visit South Africa for the first 50 years of his life. He visited with his father, Ernest, for the first time in 1994. This and subsequent visits had a remarkable impact on his artistic expression. He had already tackled the theme of slavery in black and white but his themes were visibly anchored on indigenous knowledge and alive with colour.

His subject matter, Sophiatown; ‘Ghost’ Areas Act and Taxis was inspired by his trips to the continent before his illness. Just like his father, he believed in humanism or Ubuntu. He was once quoted in an art publication – Catalyst as saying: “When people come into contact with art that speaks to them, which puts them in touch with deeper aspects of themselves and their own humanity, then I believe we will have a better society; a more whole society where violence is a stranger; a place where people are truly people by and because of other people.”

Born in Exile

Before leaving South Africa in 1938, his father had won significant prizes for his art. He went to Paris to expand his knowledge, there he met a Danish sculptor Sonja Verlov, married her and she gave birth to their only child, Wonga. Ernest was interned by the Nazis during the Second World War, which he survived.

The small family tried to come back to South Africa after the war but the Smuts government refused to allow Mancoba to bring his European wife to South Africa. He became stateless and so did she.They eked out a living for a few years in Denmark, and were active in the significant art movement CoBrA but their small son – Wonga – was the subject of racism there. They returned to France where a friend, Ms Penso, lent them a small rural cottage.

Ernest often did farm labouring work to help them survive but they both managed to continue to produce remarkable art. In 1961 they were given French citizenship, moved to Paris to a small shop/studio where they continued to produce remarkable art. In 1984 Sonja passed away.

Photos by J Faujour

Homecoming

Shortly after a South African art historian, Elza Miles, saw a work of Ernest’s on a CoBrA exhibition in Paris and identified the name as South African, traced Mancoba, found him and managed to bring him back to South Africa in 1994 for a retrospective exhibition. It was his first visit in 56 years. He was 90 years old and was accompanied by Wonga. Ernest passed away at the age of 98 in 2002. Wonga was then active in supporting efforts in South Africa to understand his father’s significant artistic and intellectual legacy.

Wonga’s ill health

Over a year ago, Wonga, now in his 60s, had a series of small strokes and was hospitalised in Paris for many months. He was cared for by long standing friends of the family, Alain Spielmann, Charley Chevalier, Corinne Penso and Elske Miles, Elza’s daughter amongst others. Sadly on 12 February he passed away. Wonga was single and had no children. He is survived by his cousins, Zodwa Mkalipe and Ntando Mancoba, who live in Soweto and Matatiele, respectively.

Penny Mkalipe, the family representative and Wonga’s niece said: “It was with sadness to hear about our uncle and brother’s passing. We wish to thank all for the support shown during this time of our bereavement. Two family representatives travelled to Paris, France to participate in funeral arrangements. The funeral and memorial service were held on 2 March, in Paris to honour his life, at Pere Lachaise.

Thereafter, the family representatives will bring his ashes to South Africa, where he will be laid to rest with his father, Ernest Mancoba, and grandparents, in Benoni.”