Onse Artist in District Six

Outlaw artist Sandra McGregor understood the vast vistas of storytelling outside of the then much-hyped oral literature and the glam offered by DRUM magazine and its genius writers such as Can Themba and Blake Modisane. Afrikans have over the years succeeded in having their knowledge transferred from one generation to the next through campfire tales – that was before someone exposed the pen and paper to them. Folk tales have survived various assaults since nobody had the power to burn – literally every Black person with a story embedded in their mind. And when they started using various mediums such as photography (Alf Khumalo), sculpting, painting etc the apartheid wheels came off.

Thus, when Sandra McGregor saw District Six – a mixed residential area that had defied any attempt by the apartheid government to divide by race – and not rule the majority population of South Africa she saw a canvas hungry for her oil and brush. Over many years she recorded life in this ‘controversial’ part of the Cape, including the day the bulldozers came with instructions to bring to an end a social experiment gone gory.

It was 1962 when she settled there as an artist – almost an outsider in a community that was MADE IN PRETORIA. Dolores Fleischer, who authored Onse Artist in District Six made it her mission to trace the route that Sandra took, her muses, her rags to riches story, her inspiration, her uncelebrated talent and the probable reasons she felt at home at District Six.

When I have to review work as disarming as Onse Artist in District Six I am confronted with the reality that the best story of South Afrika’s artistic excellence, including its place in the world has not yet been told. The Van Goghs, Picassos and friends don’t have nothing on our artists. What with the robbery that took place during apartheid years – some through curators who took in their own possession classic works by South Afrikan exiled artists such as Gerald Sekoto and the raping of works by sculptors Noria Mabasa and Jackson Hlungwani to the point where they adorn majestic buildings outside of this country – bought at a pittance.

Paraphrasing what Steve Biko said about a people with two versions of history, Fleischer not only makes this poignant point to stick out throughout her biography of McGregor but she also uses it as a political tool to interrogate the past. “The individual spirit and its artistic expression can never be destroyed”, a blurb on the back cover makes that point very clear.

The destruction of District Six aimed at discouraging, through action human disregarding of the social engineering that was taking place in their mist, mirrors that of Sophiatown. The architects of poverty’s attempt to render history a lie by destroying the inspiration that ended up on McGregor’s canvass is not lost to Fleischer’s narrative which accompanies the paintings and the profile of biography artist.

Like The Artist in the Garden – the Quest for Moses Tladi by Angela Read Lloyd, the sting in the tail of these works is the fact that they are bios written to celebrate triumph of the human spirit – against odds larger than physical and legislative hurdles.

This is a beautiful book that will be useful more the day South Afrika answers back to critics of the modernity (contemporary claim) of its artistic landscape.

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TRUE

Bana Ba Tau le Nkwe

The Great Roman Empire created the Christmas holiday to appease Christians and pagans with a day worthy of a festival. But for the great Mapulana nation of South Africa who are largely based in Mapulaneng, the biggest festival in their calendar is the annual initiation school graduation. It wasn’t different last month as thousands of boys became men and girls graduated into women. There were more than ten such schools in the kingdom.

This year’s initiation graduation was captured by a television crew for an SABC commissioned series which is funded by the National Lottery Distribution Fund. It will be screened in 2012. The documentary, aptly titled O’Mang seeks to unearth the roots of South Africa’s often forgotten Black cultures. It is being filmed all over the country and various tribes feature in the series. The core focus is on events that shape each tribe.

Kasiekulture followed the crew over three days as they explored the story of Mapulana and their initiation (koma). The Mapulana chapter of the documentary started in their ancestral land of Pilgrims’ Rest, which according to historian Billy Malele is where Mapulana settled after defeating amaSwati at Moholoholo mountain by hurling rocks at them. “They deployed various chiefs to guard boundaries. they deployed Mogane, Mashego, Mashile, Malele and Chiloane to various outposts. Every terrain was allocated a chief to guard against the return of the Swazi army”, he relates in the documentary.

On the subject of initiation another historian Jonathan Malele elaborated about how around 1830 Mapulana decided their men had to be trained to withstand any threat they might face in the future as they were fresh from a battle that saw them flee from Barberton to Hoedspruit under the barrage of amaSwati Army. “They chose the harshest of weathers, Winter to conduct the training. It had to happen far from women so a mountain was chosen. Everything that a boy is taught and trained for in our initiation schools is meant to make them brave, never fear cold, understand astronomy, how to start a family and treat his wife”, Malele said.

Unlike the much-hyped and controversial amaXhosa, Mapulana initiation is only held in Winter. He added that circumcision (lebollo) was also added to go with the training as there needed to be a measure to counter venereal diseases which made the foreskin stiff around the glans. Initiation took six months then – which is a far cry from the six weeks of nowadays.

"Government demands that it be six weeks to ensure that learners are back to school in no time. So we are guided by legislation but we still initiate them correctly even though circumcision is not a big part of it”, says Sehule Initiation School minder Robert Mashego, who is also the chairperson of initiation school minders in Limpopo Province. His younger brother Linos was running one school in Thabakgolo this year.

The O’Mang crew, led by veteran film and documentary maker Bjorn Rudner filmed the graduation ceremony from August 4, 2011, when the initiates leave the burning school behind, watch a stick-fighting (matube) until Saturday when they go home. The Mapulana chapter of this groundbreaking documentary is hosted by artist Zakhona Mogane and revolves around her journey into Mapulana history and culture.

“The people here have a colourful culture and some of the things we have seen exceeded our own expectation”, said producer Rudner, who was excited by how the script started writing itself on the second and third day.

Linos Mashego told this newspaper that this year they initiated 166 boys and 93 girls and all of them returned home safe. His older brother says it’s a far cry from what is happening in the Eastern Cape where the journey into manhood is often the last journey taken. “They need to come to Mapulaneng and learn how initiation can be performed correctly. It’s a birthright, not a commercial enterprise”, Robert, who is also a traditional healer said.

Next year, another bunch of Mapulana boys will once again take the journey into manhood at one of the 13 or so initiation schools in Mapulaneng – and the custodians of Mapulana culture are adamant that they will continue returning home in one piece – minus a foreskin.

* O’Mang will be screened some time next year.

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