YEAH

A girl is allowed to change her mind

My heart ached when I recently discovered that I do not hold the same values of around four years ago. Not that I do not welcome change, it’s just that this disrupted my smooth-tracking train of thought. I have always felt indifferent about Valentine’s Day. I did not hate it as such, but felt hostile towards it. I always felt like I would not want to fall into the pressures and demands of red and white marketing schemes and strategies. Furthermore, I truly believed that my boyfriend and I live Valentine’s Day everyday just by the mere virtue of being with each other daily and being evermore so besotted. But no, the pressures got to me. Cupid aimed his arrow at me and I was struck. I found myself in discomfort over how I would approach my boyfriend about this conjured desire that is so sudden, and quite frankly, unreasonable. Or is it? Does a girl have a right to change her mind? Let us trace the events leading up to this change of heart.
I feel strongly about the impact colonialism has had on the colonised subject closer to home; this being myself, for one, my immediate family and my immediate community, notwithstanding an African people as a whole. I have published several works on this matter, and one in particular dealing with the holidays and beliefs that are totally arbitrary to the African. This particular piece of writing interrogated the relevance of Easter’s paraphernalia, like the wonder of bunnies that lay eggs; or that fat white man in a red suit who apparently sits all year in the north pole, receiving wish lists from children all around the world and delivering these wishes to them all in one day, arriving on reindeers with sleighs nogal! Another wonder that never made sense was, hold on, Valentine’s Day. It seemed too far-fetched an idea for me to even consider. Never mind fall for it. So you can understand my disruption in beliefs when I, all of a sudden, wanted anything ranging from a stuffed toy, chocolates, or even a card; all this for a day that I always found too outdated and foreign to my reality. I have always viewed cupid as some Greek, neo-platonic, mythical archetype who has lost meaning and probably gained new, arbitrary meaning over the last five hundred years or so.
See, my boyfriend shared these sentiments when we met four years ago so you can imagine his surprise when I carefully raised the subject on the twelfth of February this year. The moment called for an “I thought we spoke about this” speech. I must admit my approach was tactless. I should have taken time to think of how I would overturn everything we believed in, hence risking the “this is not the woman I fell in love with” sort of abrupt thinking. To be honest, it is the doubt that I had towards this sensitive matter that made my words come out like empty vessels - I could not back them up confidently. And add to that, the location and timing were completely wrong. The words just blurted out of me while I was behind the wheel, cruising down Old Potch Road in Soweto, “babe are you gonna get me something for Valentine’s day?” Talk about tacky — wrong approach, no eye contact, and a general lack of poise. “Oh, is it Valentine’s day?” oh, no! Now we even live in different worlds! Which world has he been in that does not have in-your-face Cardies sales, red and white balloons and the advertisements that prompt one to send one’s spouse love sms’s? There is no avoiding these messages. Or could you avoid them if your mind is made up by solid decisions you have taken about your life? Am I shallow and fickle? Why can I not stick to the beliefs I initially relayed upon this man that I so love? But change is a constant and we are seeking courage to embrace each other for the ever-progressing individuals we are. I have decided not to be hard on myself. A girl is allowed to change her mind. And with enough thought put into the next ‘approach’ for next Valentine’s, I shall not lose!

ART

Polly Street I

Western contact tainted the African artist?!

Uhuru Phalafala plays the Devil’s advocate in a highly contested territory of Western vs Afrikan arts, from both the artist, exhibitor, curator and buyer’s perspective

Sidney Kumalo and Esrom Legae were both products of the Polly Street Recreation Centre’s art workshops run by Cecil Skotnes in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Kumalo and, briefly, Legae were included in the Amadlozi group put together by Egon Guenther in the 1960’s. This essay strives to show how these two artists’s Africanness was, to a certain extent, a by-product of the modernism encouraged by their teachers and dealers. I will do this by exploring how these artists were influenced by their teacher, Skotnes, to produce art that was considered to ‘embody the spirit of Africa’, and by their dealer, Guenther, to produce art that was ‘authentically African’ for the international Western market. I will start by giving a brief history of Polly Street, Cecil Skotnes and Egon Guenther, then of the two artists, their work and involvement in the Amadlozi group.

Polly Street was a recreational centre in downtown Johannesburg at the bottom of Polly Street. It was established in 1949. It launched its first classes in 1950 and “…neither the students nor the voluntary teachers dreamt that a school with such a modest beginning was destined to play a seminal role in the history of South Africa’s visual arts” (Miles, 2004: 16). It was then named the Polly Street Adult Education Center by the city council and held art classes once a week on Wednesday evening from five till seven. These were times chosen carefully to avoid the curfew that prohibited black people from ‘roaming’ the urban streets after ten o’clock. The first classes were attended by less than fifteen people and the centre had four voluntary instructors. The center did not only provide art but also offered activities like boxing, dancing and singing. Eleanor Lolimer, one of the first four voluntary instructors, told The Star newspaper, after the first class, that there were many critics of the endeavor to teach Africans “to paint in the European style instead of encouraging their own approach to art” (25 July 1949). This idea would live to be the debate central to this notion of African artist having white trainers and dealers. As David Koloane believed:

“Black art exists almost exclusively by virtue of white liberals’ benign interest. Teachers are white, art administrators are white, gallery directors are white, and so are the critics and buyers” (Seven Stories).

Using this assertion as a point of departure, I will now look at Sidney Kumalo and Esrom Legae’s works and assess how their training and subsequent works were a by-product of the modernism encouraged by their teachers and dealers.

ART

Polly Street II

The Influence of Cecil Skotnes

Uhuru interrogates the art curator’s role in influencing the direction of the artistic expression, which is being marketed as original while at the same time defiled by Western artistic dogma

Cecil Skotnes took over at Polly Street as a teacher in 1952. He was born in 1926 and his father was a priest and missionary. Cecil grew up believing that all people are equal before God and attributes his interest in social upliftment to his early background and his parents’ example. He studied Fine Arts at the university of Witswatersrand between 1947 and 1950, when the department was limited to painting and History of Art. His art history teacher, Maria Stein-Lessing, influenced his thinking greatly. She was dynamic and eccentric, well informed on European art. It was her who first introduced Skotnes to German Expressionism, which later inspired him greatly (Harmsen, 1996: 12). She also had a wide-ranging knowledge of African art and was a dealer thereof. After his degree Skotnes traveled overseas where he gained greater insight into the works of Picasso and the Cubists who had been held up to them in class as important models. He was also exposed to ancient art such as Egyptian, Assyrian and pre-classical Greek. Some of the themes of these works would later be assimilated in his own works. During his early development as an artist, he discovered a large collection of African woodcarvings and Benin bronzes. He joined Polly Street in 1952 as a teacher and one may safely say that it was him who made this the well-known centre that it is. Walter Battiss wrote his a letter during this time that said, “ the art teacher, you, breathes in air and breathes out light which makes his students glow, and the halo of great glory shines around the students, and the art teacher is in the shadow, forgotten” (Harmsen, Our Art III: 153). I will explore this metaphor of the teacher breathing light onto the student in relation to Skotnes’ influence on Kumalo and Legae.

Skotnes was introduced to Egon Guenther in 1954 and this meeting proved to be a turning point in Skotnes’ career. Guenther was a former gallery director in Germany and immigrated to South Africa. “He had impeccable taste, was well informed on contemporary art in Europe and also highly knowledgeable about African art. He readily recognized talent in other and encouraged and nurtured this not only by acting as dealer, but by means of animated and dictatorial discussions about art in general that challenged and stimulated his new South African friends and protégés” (1996: 14). He assisted and inspired Skotnes in the woodcuts medium. Skotnes’ iconography changed gradually. He also started seeing universality in African art. He read widely on the subject and started collecting African artefacts from various parts of the continent. “African art became an important influence on his style. He always acknowledged this source and recognized its diversity … he also cites as seminal to his art the influence of Cubism and in particular Picasso’s Cubist paintings” (1996: 20). These two forms influenced him greatly and was quoted saying, “I became acquainted with German Expressionism and the great similarities between it and tribal art…” (1996: 14). He would later point these similarities to his student and assistant Sidney Kumalo.

“Egon Guenther, who had opened a commercial art gallery in Johannesburg in 1957, was particularly set on exhibiting work with a local flavour. He also wanted to show such work in Europe. Vittorio Meneghelli indicated his willingness to sponsor the venture. In 1963 Guenther therefore selected five of the regular exhibitors at the Egon Guenther Gallery … to unite in such an undertaking because in their work he saw a vibrant influence of Africa as expressed by individuals who were commitedly South African, but from disparate backgrounds” (1996:21).

He called this group the Amadlozi group, a zulu word for ‘the spirit of the ancestors’, which was an ideal name for what Guenther had in mind. Amongst the five chosen artist was Sydney Kumalo. He began attending classes by Skotnes in 1953. Polly Street offered him many opportunities, including a commission to make imagery for the church. He worked with Skotnes on this commission and also did a series of ceiling paintings in 1957, merging Christian symbols with African motifs (Images of metal). Skotnes arranged for Kumalo to work with Edoardo Villa so that he could develop his sculptural techniques. Villa remarked that Guenther’s discriminating eye and guidance were influential in the development of Kumalo’s sculpting. He would only accept works that met his high standards. He also introduced Kumalo to the traditional African sculpture in his fine and elaborate collection. With this influence Kumalo took “forms that have been evolved by the traditional African sculptors and amalgamated them to those crystallized gestures that have been developed out of medieval European sculpture by the Expressionists … the Expressionists combined Cubist structure with a dramatic manner. They swept strong, vitalizing movements through the rigid Cubist planes and infused them with emotional symbolism …. (Tribal) art had much in common with Expressionism. Both were highly stylized and geometric. In both distortion served to accentuate the conceptual and aesthetic ideas that pervaded the work of art” (Watter, Our Art III: 67). It is very clear that Guenther’s high standard of art and expectations influenced Kumalo’s sculpture and that the Cubist and African style which Guenther passed on to Skotnes also influenced Kumalo’s final products. “And when Egon Guenther gave Kumalo his first solo exhibition at his gallery in 1962, he arranged for some of his terracotta sculptures to be cast in terrazzo and in bronze, and took orders for further bronze casts” (Images of metal: 129). And because Skotnes felt that he should try to preserve what he though of as the ‘African heritage’ of his black students, he could not help but to drive their works in a certain direction. In an interview by David Koloane with Durant Sihlali, Sihlali mentions that Skotnes was encouraging a particular direction among the students (Nettleton Ed., 1989: 218). The circumstances for black artists in South Africa were dire at the point because of the Apartheid regime, so any opportunity to have economic upliftment and recognition as an artist was grabbed with both hands. This asserts Koloane’s belief that black art exist almost exclusively by virtue of white liberals’ benign interest. The teachers, art administrators, gallery directors, critics and buyers were white; which automatically influenced the execution of the art they were dealing in.

ART

Polly Street III

The undoing of Sidney Kumalo

In this third episode Uhuru looks at the influence, for better or worse of the Western cultured teacher on the artworks of the Native and how such influence was calculated to entice an adoration of foreign aesthetic at the expense of the local

Sidney Kumalo’s work in the early sixties, most done before and subsequent to the Amadlozi group’s first exhibition in 1963, show the Africanness that was encouraged by Guenther and Skotnes. In 1960 Kumalo made three terracotta heads constructed in cubist fashion. Later between 1967 and 1969 he made the Elongated Head which embodied the abstraction of form that is reminiscent of African forms. “The elongated nose becomes a rhythmical, vertical accent that is repeated in the cheek-bones. The mouth is a bisected disk, designed to give the face a traditionally sad expression. Eyebrows have spread down the cheeks, encompassing eyes and ending in a triangular incision below the nose so that the effect of a visor is given” (Our Art III: 70). This sad expression translated into the suffering that non-whites in South Africa were being subjected to. Works like High Shoulders of 1966 and Praying woman of 1960 show this abstraction and distortion of form. The Praying woman has long torso and small head with the characteristic terracotta mask features. The short, stout legs are also features of classic African sculpture. Most of his works show the modernist abstraction that he was exposed to in his apprenticeship with Skotnes and encouragement from Guenther. Musician Khabi Mngoma who spoke at the opening of Kumalo’s first solo exhibition, said, “Kumalo, living in an urban milieu, trained by white teachers, was not a ‘tribal artist’, but neither was he an artist who had forgotten or chosen to forget the imaginative and spiritual heritage of his people” (Images of steel: 132). This conjures the manifesto of the Amadlozi Group. This Africanness that was clearly evident in his sculptures was a by-product of the modernism encouraged by Skotnes and Guenther.

One cannot help but point out the similarities between some of Esrom Legae’s sculpture and that of Sidney Kumalo, and ultimately Edoardo Villa. Legae started attending classes regularly at the Polly Street recreation centre later on in 1962. The teachers at that time were both Skotnes and Kumalo. Legae was constantly drawing and he remembers Skotnes commenting that his drawing was that of a sculptor. Skotnes even insisted that Legae starts modeling sculptures. When Kumalo left the centre in 1964, Skotnes felt that Legae would be his new assistant (Images of Steel: 135). Legae met Egon Guenther as he frequented the centre to have informal dictatorial discussions in which he shared his perceptions on art and professionalism with the artists working there (2004: 48). He later joined the Amadlozi briefly. Him too, like Kumalo, had his works cast in bronze for his solo exhibition by Guenther in 1966. Although Legae states that he was not consciously influenced by African sculpture and Guenther states that “he absorbed the spirit of the African pieces without copying them”, one can clearly see the modernist abstraction and influence of African Nok mask in Legae’s sculptures. In his work, Head with vertebrae of 1966, the stylization of facial features recalls that of African carving and sculpture. “The elongation and simplification of Head with Vertebrae is reminiscent of the phallic form of some African carvings of heads in the collection of Egon Guenther and it is significant that Legae had been introduced to him at the time and had seen his collection of central and West African art” (Images of Steel: 136). In works like Head of a wise man of 1965, one can see the direct borrowings from African sculpture. He made a series of these heads and masks in the earl sixties that were reminiscent of the terracotta masks from West Africa. These heads are executed in cubist style and modernist abstraction. The distortion of form and animistic features quote those of classical African sculpture. Whether Legae was influenced by Guenther’s elaborate collection of African artefacts from West Africa remains unknown, but the modernism in their Africanness cannot be denied.

Although it is debatable whether Skotnes actually did encourage his students towards a particular form and style of art, one thing that stands out towards proving this notion is the similarities in training, medium, iconography, and the encouragement from Guenther in forms of solo exhibitions, casting of sculpture in bronze and their involvement in the Amadlozi group. “Only recently have questions been asked by writers like Steven Sack and David Koloane about problems associated with offering a predominantly western form of art making to black artists in the context of Apartheid” (1996: 65). It would seem that in such a context there arises power struggles, preference and exposure. Egon Guenther was dictatorial in his discussion of art and if he did not like your works and they did not meet his international standards for sale purposes, you would not have a solo exhibition in his gallery. If Skotnes did not see the progress that he sought after, that is, art that embodies the essence of Africa, then you would probably not be appointed as his assistant. Legae recalls that Skotnes would never tell students how to do something, but was rather intent on ‘making people think with their eyes’ (1996: 70). I think this idea of a teacher encouraging students to think with their eyes is euphemistic of commanding them to learn from what they see. Being influenced by what you see is partly the premise of art but when this is set against the backdrop of Apartheid, socio-economics and power relations apparent in teacher-student relationship, especially when the teacher is white and the students black, the students cannot help but work towards the direction the teachers are leading them. And when the dealer who shows interest in the artists’ work is dictatorial, then the artist has to deal with his demands and those of the market at large.

ESSAY

The Psychology of the Colonized

My dearest Literati co-blogger Uhuru Mahlodi Phalafala 'mmina tshwene wa Mohananwa' has been working hard this year at school producing some of the best literature pieces to grace Kasiekulture. I, without fear of contradction can tell you that she's one of the most intelligent people I know and you should watch this space, I mean when she becomes the youngest what-what and an incon in her own right don't say we didn't warn you. She's back with a psychological analysis of a slave. Enjoy

Author Ferdinand Oyono’s Houseboy is a novel that deals with colonization in the form of assimilation. Assimilation, in psychological terms, is a process whereby a person acquires new ideas through comparing experiences with the existing content of their own mind. On the physical level, colonization through assimilation means the colonizer seeks domination through hegemony; where the colonized subject is expected to go through a complete metamorphosis, adopting the colonizer’s language, mannerisms and culture. Cameroon, where the novel is set, was one such country where the French settled and aspired to assimilate the natives. When I do a close reading of Houseboy, I see it as a psychological assessment of our protagonist, Toundi, more than a sociological observation. I therefore feel that the quotation, “Toundi’s destruction is ultimately of his own making”, is an unfair assessment. On the surface it might seem like he caused his own demise through his behavior, naivety and myopic nature; but on a psychological analysis one starts questioning what contributes to these mannerisms. That is why it is important that I state which theory I apply in contesting the above quotation. There are many ways of interpreting literature and in this instance I will apply the theory of reception through psychology. It is vital that I mention that many of my observations will be assisted by most of Franz Fanon’s assertions; this being appropriate as he studied how colonialism affected the psychology of the colonized subject.

The novel evokes empathy in that it exposes the violence that the natives, Toundi in particular, are subjected to by the oppressors. I will start by interrogating the dynamics of violence, both physically and psychologically. In an introduction to The wretched of the earth, Fanon describes the condition of the native as a nervous condition, meaning that the colonized subject is a neurotic. This is a suitable definition for our protagonist. Toundi was exposed to violence from his father in his early years at home. He states that “whenever he went for either my mother or me, it always took us a week to recover” (page 10). He was susceptible to this neurosis at an early stage in his life, suffering blows from his father, being called “a drop of my own liquid” (page 11) and being ‘taught how to behave’ by extreme methods. Throughout the novel, eyes play an important role. Toundi is always watched and no one is comfortable under constant blatant surveillance. One of the examples of instances where eyes constibute to his nervous conditions are when Father Gilbert ‘protected’ him from his father after he (Toundi) ran away. He says that “the look came into his eye that always came when he was going to ‘teach me how to behave’” (page 13). On another instance, he was going to fetch beer for the Commandant and his cap rolled off across the floor. He then confesses that “in a flash I saw his eyes grow as small as a cat’s eyes in the sun… I was nearly dead with fear” (page 23). These hovering eyes that he must constantly be weary of keep him on the edge.

Lilian Corti deduces that “Toundi is especially vulnerable to abuse at the hands of his colonial persecutors because he has learned the role of the victim in his father’s house” (Colonial violence and psychological defenses in Ferdinand Oyono’s Une vie de boy: 2003). So when he suffered physical violence from the colonizers, Toundi does not see it as something to frown upon because he does not know any better. In For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence, Alice Miller argues that children may be educated so as to become compliant subjects of tyrannical authorities. Colonizer who assume assimilation have a tendency of making the colonized subject believe he is stupid because he cannot ‘behave appropriately’, that is, he cannot speak French in this instance, and they usually slander their culture and tradition.

As Jean-Paul Sartre observed in the preface of The wretched of the earth:

Violence in the colonies does not only have for its aim the keeping of these enslaved men at arm’s length; it seeks to dehumanize them. Everything will be done to wipe out their traditions, to substitute their language for theirs (colonizers) and to destroy their culture without giving them theirs.[1]

[there is also a claim that colonizers used a form of slave labour which was always preceded by verbal and physical abuse on the colonized male to make sure that he bottles the anger inside of himself at realizing that he can not retaliate against the massa (master) or colonizer, depending on what scenario is being explored. Psychologists assert that the purpose of this undeserved abuse was to make the male/husband/father to be irrational so that when he gets home he doesn’t respect his woman because his woman represents a defeated human being that deserves no honour. This becomes the switching of roles when the abused find an opportunity to unleash his anger at the next helpless human being. For him this represents his affirmation of masculinity while it is a knee-jack reaction to the abuse he suffers in his work environment. So the abuse of the provider automatically resulted in a chain reaction of abused souls as the mother will respond to being disrespected by the father by being abusive to children, while the children would unleash their bottled anger at other children. The result was to make sure that the colonized community becomes a highly polarized one that can not find common ground]

This form of dehumanization can be studied around how Toundi is treated as a ‘pet animal’, how he compares himself to a parrot and how he believes that his ancestors were cannibals (page 9). Their traditions are undermined and he believes that before the white man came they looked upon each other as animals (page 9). This is one way in which the colonized gain an inferiority complex, by the colonizer undermining everything they ever believed in. The colonizer is then looked upon to bring ‘light’ to this dark situation; to save the colonized subject from himself. So when physical violence is used against him, Toundi does not question it and probably trusts that it is the best way for the French to deal with the native because the native had to be ‘corrected’, and because of their Christian ways, they have to have their best interest at heart. As Leonard Kibera says in his essay “…Christianity teaches the colonial subject to accept his station in life, not to question it” (Colonial Contact and Language in Ferdinand Oyono’s Houseboy: 1983)[2].

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[1] The wretched of the earth, Preface.

[2] African Lierature Today, Volume 13: 1983

ESSAY

The Psychology of the Colonised II

Although physical violence can leave bad scars and wounds, it is psychological violence that leaves a bigger rot. In the early parts of the novel, Toundi leaves his village and adopts a new father. This migration brought unto him cultural alienation and a form of spiritual exile, where he got cut off from native social attachments. Fanon speaks of how the native looks upon the settler with lust and envy for his possessions. He says that “it is true, for there is no native who does not dream at least once a day of setting himself up in the settler’s place” (The wretched of the earth: page 30). So to Toundi it seemed ideal to work for the white man, to learn his language and behavioral patterns. He even states how other boys from the village were envious of his position: “all the boys in Fia were so impressed by these that they came to ask Father Gilbert to take them on as well” (page 13). This is where Toundi’s humiliation, dehumanization, objectification and infantalization were to start.

Projection is another strong form of psychological mechanism defense. Father Gilbert made Toundi believe that his ancestors were cannibals, taking his unacceptable part of himself and attributing it to Toundi. By this he looks upon his history as that of savagery and his ancestors as uncivilized. Another psychological atrocity is the paternalistic attitude shown to him at the Resident. This is dangerous because he has left his father’s house for another ‘father’ whom he calls his benefactor. He actually starts believing that his parents are dead (page 14) and now he has got a new father. This natal alienation robs him of a culture to follow and social traditions to embrace. When he gets to the Residence he accepts a new name (Joseph) which causes a further division. Through objectification the colonizers are able to violate his psychological integrity. He starts seeing himself as objects; for example, a parrot (page 13), a pet animal (page 14), a dog (page 20) and “a thing that obeys” (page 22). And he does not seem to see anything wrong in his description as a masterpiece (page 15). Frederick Douglas observed that the slave “must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel slavery is right, and he can only be brought to that when he ceases to be a man” (Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas, An American slave 1982: 135).

[Steve Bantu Biko, who Fanon obviously influenced - for better or worse in his essay, We Blacks wrote that, ‘But the type of Black man we have today has lost his manhood. Reduced to an obliging shell, he looks with awe at the white power structure and accepts what he regards as the “inevitable position”. Deep inside his anger mounts at the accumulating insult, but he vents it in the wrong direction – on his fellow man in the township, on the property of black people” . He goes on to write that, “All in all the balck man has become a shell,, a shadow of man, completely defeated, drowning in his own misery, a slave, an ox bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity’ – I Write What I like (Ravan Press)]

This observation is not far fetched and resonates that of fanon where he says violence seeks to dehumanize the colonized and wipe out their traditions and language for their own. The dispossession of culture and loss of identity is vital in turning a ‘slave’ into a thoughtless one; into a thing that obeys, a boy.

Ultimately the colonizers are able to break Toundi down. They over worked him, robbed him of his identity and culture and subjected him to physical violence. He cannot be blamed for persevering through these conditions because to him it was not perseverance; he saw it as a way of life. Leonard Kibera deduces that “… he never has the courage to get away precisely because his psychological attachment to white aesthetics is already too great. Indeed the more we read the diary, the more we realize that it is not about Toundi’s development but about his mental regression”. All he yearned for was harmonious living with his ‘new father’, to learn his language and ways of living. In one instance he states that he is “the Chief European’s boy. The dog of the King is the King of the dogs” (page 20). He was convinced that he has a special relationship with whites because he worked for the Commandant and spoke French. He then loses a grasp on reality and fails to realize that he is in serious danger, besides all the obvious signs and the warnings from Kalisia (page 100). The situation he finds himself in has managed to blind his mental vision and annihilate his power of reason so much that he detects no danger and waits until the river has swallowed him completely.

I think Toundi should be studied with pathos more than blame because of all the violence he is subjected to. The seniors at the Residence succeed in turning him into an ideal slave though objectification, dehumanization, infantalization, projection and turning him into an automaton through long hours of work. He endures a lot of physical and mental violation that leads him to his death. Even on his death bed he is uneasy and perplexed, trying to find answers to the question “what are we black men who are called French” (page 4).

References

1.Fanon, F. The wretched of the earth. Presence Africaine: 1963
2. Kibera, L. Colonial contact and language in Ferdinand Oyono’s Houseboy, African Literature Today. Volume 13: 1983

3. Corti, L. Colonial violence and psychological defenses in Ferdinand Oyono’s Une vie de boy. Research in African Literatures 34, 1 (2003): 44-47

4. Douglas, F. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American slave. 1982

LITERATURE

Canon: The oppressor

I told you some time ago that Uhuru is back with her deep analysis of African literature and arts. This week she probes Mhudi by Sol Plaatjie

When literature was spoken of, the only written works that came to mind were literature from the west. African literature has been, for a long time, marginalized. The word literacy is embedded in literature hence the recorders of such a medium had to be literate; so the writing of African literature by Africans was a specialised activity. For a while it seemed like the phrase African literature was an oxymoron because most African were illiterate. It wasn’t acknowledged that even under the circumstances it didn’t mean that an African literature was non-existent; the art of oral (orature) tradition was dominant over the written art. As a result, the only African stories that were recorded in writing were from a white perspective; because they were not directly involved in the everyday life of Africans, the representation of such a life was opinion-based and not fact-based. For example, the stories, customs, traditions and beliefs of Africans were conveyed as barbaric and savage; a lot of these were mere imperialistic doctrines and Euro centric assumptions (based on a one-sided story of false observation). For instance, F.R Burton said: “the savage custom of going naked has denuded the mind and destroyed all decorum in the language; poetry there is none; no rhyme, no metre, nothing that stirs the intellect nor arouses the emotions.[1]” This is one of many arbitrary statements that write off African norms and traditions without understanding their origins; self-interest was always central to these notions.

Drastic measures had to be taken by an African people to make sure that their way of living is not slandered further. The responsibility of such counteraction lay upon those who have access (education, ancestral/historical knowledge) to the medium of conveying messages to the rest of the world. Plaatjie, being one of the first African writers to use English, also felt a responsibility to represent an African way of life in a corrective way. Hence, in the beginning of the novel, he portrays everyday life of the Barolong people as idyllic and emphasizes the dependence of their survival on the land upon which they live. He writes: “the peasants were content to live their monotonous lives… strange to relate, these simple folk were perfectly happy without money and without silver watches. Abject poverty was practically unknown…” (Page 27). He immediately gives us a contrast between a pre-colonial Barolong society and the boers’ way of life. Without a doubt, Plaatjies intentions in Mhudi is to, firstly, defend the traditional African way of life, secondly, to present a corrective view of history, thirdly, to comment on the 1830’s (the historical setting of the novel) as compared to early 20^th century. “And when his novel begins with African traditional life being seen in Garden-of-Eden terms this is not entirely accidental for he is presenting an image of an idyllic society about to be disrupted by forces which were the genesis of South Africa’s problems as Plaatjie saw them in 1917.”

It is important to Plaatjie that history be viewed ‘correctly’ to erase a lot of social misconceptions and inferiority complexes. He admits this in his preface when he says that Mhudi was written “to interpret to the reading public one phase of ‘the back of the native mind’”. He chooses the 1830’s to model his novel because many of the issues evident to him in 1917 were as a result of that era. “So Plaatjie, by choosing the 1830’s as the period of his novel, manages to examine the historical genesis of the problems facing his people in 1917 and, at the same time, he creates a model for contemporary events and can issue a strong, implicit warning.”

Firstly it would seem like he portrays the Matebele in a negative way; the novels open with peaceful idyllic surroundings of the Barolong, which is soon to be invaded by “king of a ferocious tribe called the Matebele”(page 28). I think this is a deliberate contrast in the tribes to give the reader the idea that African societies are not the same (as opposed to how we are classified/generalized by imperialist doctrines); he is suggesting that the African society is a whole lot more complex than it appears. He, in the same context, writes that this tribe introduced manners which were extremely offensive even to these primitive people (Batswana): “the victorious soldiers were in the habit of walking about in their birthday garb thereby forcing the modest Bechuana women and children to retire on each appearance of Matabele men.” This takes me aback to F.R Burton’s arbitrary statement about Africans and nudity; he might have been exposed and shocked by it, but it wasn’t enough for him to write off all African as savage, clearly it is not a norm practised by all Africans. So Plaatjie employs these indifferences to point out the diversity of his people.

Another instance is when Mhudi finally finds Ra-Thaga and Umnandi accompanies her (page 163). This woman is the queen of the Matebele, the same Matebele that invaded the village of their ancestors and killed all, the same Matebele that kill even women and children, and, finally, the same Matebele who kill anybody who is not their own (especially if he’s a Motswana); and now here is this ferocious tribe’s queen before them, but Ra-Thaga (who is hungry for revenge), calmed by Mhudi’s soothing description, ends up complimenting her by saying she’s a noble woman and therefore poses no danger to her. This shows that not all Africans are savage and bloodthirsty (diversity).

In his quest to give a corrective view of history, Plaatjie epitomizes the role of a woman in the society. He writes very highly of women and privileges three women (Mhudi, Umnandi, Hannetjie) from all the three tribes that are mentioned in the novel. This is to erase the unfounded ideology that the black man thinks nothing of his female counterpart; that the black man oppresses and treats his woman as his servant. “Look at the advantages…marriage will give you two mothers—your own and your wife’s, the latter the greater of the two. …I shall go down to the field of carnage, bestride the old battlefield, and say: here fell the noble Rolong woman who mothered my wife, and nourished every fibre of her beautiful form”(page 157). Ra-thaga relates the importance of a woman in society and in a man’s life to De Villiers; I suspect Plaatjie did this deliberately to address the reader about the place of an African woman in society. This ‘confrontation’ is from an African man to a white man to put it in the context of Sol Plaatjie addressing white orientated misconceptions. He even goes as far as naming the novel after the heroine who is an extended praise of the Barolong.

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[1] Burton, F.R. Wits and wisdom from West Africa. London, 1865

LITERATURE

Canon the Oppressor II

(Mhudi)

The issue of historical events play a big role in Mhudi. In summary, the sequence of events unfolded as follows: the Barolong executed two of the Matebele tax collectors, the Matebele retaliated and invaded their village, the Batswana made and alliance with the Boers and attacked the Matebele. Those are the constituents of the Mfecane/Defacane war; the same war that was dismissed as tribal wars. It was only in the middle of this war that the Great Trek emerged but the happenings of that war were overshadowed by the trek. “The events of the Mfecane have moreover impressed themselves indelibly on the consciousness of subsequent generations. The memories and traditions of this period serve to maintain the sense of identity of peoples who were vitally affected by it, influencing attitudes within and between groups in many complex ways.” It is clear that the less mention is made of the Mfecane war, the more complexes (psychological/inferiority) is inflicted upon the people who are directly affected/influenced by it. Plaatjie fights to show that the trek was not the only notable event in history; that there is a history that has been repressed and misinterpreted by history recorders/books. This is a perfect example of ‘interpreting the back of a native mind.’ That is why in Mhudi, Plaatjie doesn’t make the trek central to the novel and to history, but mentions it as part of a bigger picture; he actually, in a way, equates the ‘trek’ of the Matebele to Bulawayo to that of the Boers up north.

Sol Plaatjie makes Mhudi an interface between the1830’s and 1917; he uses those historical moments to comment on the events of his lifetime. Many of the events then were a beginning/cause of the events he was experiencing in his life. In the preface to the original edition, he mentions that from childhood he’s been taught to fear the Matebele; a warning that I can relate to but have never known the reasoning behind it. He then provides explanation for these notions in the most ‘corrective’ way; it is clear that Plaatjie has a definite view of the continuity of history. As far as I can research, I am convinced that the ultimate underlying issue in Mhudi is that of land. Plaatjie, he himself having been personally involved in the struggle against the Land Act of 1913 (through the South African National Congress), uses Mhudi to give a view of the genesis of this injustice of land distribution. Land is primary to the narrative; the Matebele steals land from the Batswana, the Batswana retaliate, the Boers steals the land from the Batswana. Mhudi was written after the Land Act was registered so Plaatjie uses novel to foreshadow the act. “…the whole background plot of Mhudi is summarized with specific reference to its leading up to and foreshadowing the Land Act”.

In the novel the Matebele are the oppressors whilst in Plaatjie’s time (1917) the Boers were the oppressors. There are a lot of similarities between the events of the 1830’s and those of 1917. To add on the one I’ve already mentioned above, the Matebele introduced the authoritarian tax regime after they invaded Kunana; the same way the Boers introduced the tax system after taking over the land. The idea of law and justice was one that involved consensus politics; debates between chiefs and overall judgement influenced by many wise men. Then in 1917, the justice (or injustice, rather) system that was imposed was more governmental than tribal/individual; the contrast between the Matebele state and the Barolong government can be compared to that between the African justice system and the Boer government during 1917. Also, the oppression of the Matebele over the Batswana was unconditional: women and children suffered the wrath; it would seem that after the Boers took the land, they subjected everybody, including women and children, to their oppression. So Plaatjie uses the dominion of the Matebele in 1830 to compare it to the dominion of the whites in 1917. This is not to say that he thinks the Matebele are just like the Boers, it is the ideology of the reinforcement of their power over the people in history that are similar to that of the Boers in Plaatjie’s time. He portrays the Boers in the novel to be people who ill-treat their servants, as being greedy, cruel and untrustworthy; his time was the height of such behaviour from the Boers.

One of the main characteristics of the African people that Plaatjie emphasizes on is that of hospitality. The idea of ‘my land is your land, my cattle your cattle and my law your shield’ has been taken advantage of by everybody who arrived on that land, especially the Boers; Plaatjie was living in a time of the consequential undermining of this hospitality, hence the novel “is a moral attack on the descendants of those who were welcomed to the land and helped by their hosts to drive off those who threatened it.”

Mhudi employs a lot of prophecies to ensure the comparison between the time of the setting of the novel and the time it was written; Plaatjie uses this to link the 1830’s with the events of the early 20^th century. Mzilikazi’s prophecy at the end of the book is not fulfilled in the book itself but used as a technique to focus our attention on the future; when observed, the prophecy is fulfilled because the Boers stole the land from the Batswana and used them as slaves and servants to develop their own land. They also, with the Batswana women, ‘breed a race of half man and half goblin’ (page 175). The use of Halley’s comet is also very important; it appears every seventy-five years and marks the ‘downfall of kings and destruction of nations by wars or sickness’ (page 149).

“Just as Mzilikazi uses this fable as a predictive device to warn the Barolong, so, in the context of his writings and his life, Plaatjie seems to be using his novel Mhudi to warn the whites.” It does not seem far-fetched because after the last Halley’s comet (1910), the next one was supposedly in 1985 and indeed it seems it was the beginning of the downfall of white domination.

So ultimately Plaatjie, on top of emphasizing on the corrective way of viewing African traditions and norms, rates the land issue very high; he feels that without a land, man can’t grow (especially in the time of the setting of the novel and in 1917). As far as I can see/read, Mhudi is a novel about the importance of land; the Matebele cheats the Batswana of land and the Boers do the same. The idea of hospitality and sharing spaces is dominant as a theme, and it is the injustice involved in the sharing of the land that makes the novel what it is. It seems human relations are in order according to the way Plaatjie represents the communal living, the way he represents the position of a woman in the society/family is also a symbol of harmonious living; he also makes reference to the idea of universal brother- sisterhood. I think through the stories he narrates in Mhudi, he’s able to emphasize his need for Africans, or anyone for that matter, to land he can call his own (to define their identity). In the end history lives on: the Matebele are still found in Zimbabwe, the oppression of the Boers has met its demise, women are treated equal in society and the idea of universal sister-brotherhood is not a far-fetched one.

References

1. “Introduction” to 1978 edition of Mhudi, by Tim Couzens.
2. Couzens, T. “The dark side of the world: Sol Plaatjie’s Mhudi” in English studies in Africa. 14.2(September 1971)

ART

The African Artist and the Muse

After a Sabattical Soul-Sista Uhuru is back with her interrogation of art

African artists in rural areas create forms that express their own senses of modernity and belonging to a larger contemporary world. In this essay I will be looking at Jackson Hlungawani's sculptures and how he uses his traditional bases to create works that are meaningful to his community. This will often include a discussion of other works from sculptors like Noria Mabasa and Johannes Maswanganye. I will also analyse how these artists keep an eye on the international art theme. Firstly it is important to make a discussion of these issues around modern, modernist, traditional and contemporary against a bigger backdrop of a western understanding of art coming out of rural areas in Africa. By western understanding I do not only refer to the international market but also critics, art historians and writers from an urban South African context.

It has always been problematic trying to classify and distinguish rural art in relation to other forms of art coming out of South Africa and Africa as a whole, especially when determining which art is modern or contemporary, and which one is ‘untainted’. Whenever the word rural comes out in relation to Africa, other words like primitive and traditional are conjured. In this way, when one speaks of rural art, which in turn suggests primitive and traditional, it becomes problematic to see such art as modern because modernity creates a binary of rural. Moreover, traditional also has connotations of historical which could also create a disjuncture when one wants to understand the contemporary in relation to rural artists because rural suggests of a historical background that is in binary opposition with contemporary. So what is it that makes rural artists contemporary and what is it that makes these artists exclusively rural?

The problems around this discussion arise from the dominant ideology that that which is African cannot be modern, which was perpetuated by the colonial viewing of Africa as a dark continent. This directs us to the question: do the primitive have an ability to make art? Art, from a western point of view, was hailed, as early as the Renaissance era, as an intellectual pursuit. Artists gained a notch up from artisans because patrons and critics alike started seeing, in art, an extension of the artists’ genius, skill and uniqueness. The colonial way of viewing Africa, that Africans are men of action not of thought, negates this notion of an artist as a genius. Instead, the west have a Romantic view of African art by thinking that African artists, especially rural artists, do not need training in art, that they have an innate ability to produce art. This art is expected to embody the African spirit and essence. It should be done for functional purposes not decorative. These artists were imagined to make works of art that have a lot of belief and meaning invested in them, works that were ritualistic and invested with inherent meanings by the community as a whole. Sidney Kasfir wrote extensively on African art and the western way of viewing it. He puts this idea so aptly when he writes that the west believed that “the ‘primitive’ artist…is controlled by forces larger than himself and consequently knows not the subjective feeling of aesthetic choice” (Kasfir, 1992: 44-45). Hence the African rural artist could be seen as one that is untrained in the intellectual tradition of art production and does not necessarily have an aesthetic understanding of avant garde. Kasfir also writes about “tribal style” where the west views an artist’s work as one that is representative of the community and its culture.

Who are the contemporary rural artists?

Contemporary rural artists are those that hail from the rural areas, and most continue to reside there in their production of art. They were trained by either family or community artists. They use traditional materials, like wood, clay and beads, and use traditional methods. Traditional African art was always associated with sculpture but in the twentieth century other forms and mediums arose. These rural artists are not modernist in that they are not conscious or consciously follow the conventions of avant garde. They are also not urban in that they do not produce art with the gallery and museum in mind, but with a sense of community. They are also not school trained but trained by their fathers or grandfathers or an immediate community member. During the 1980’s a lot of rural sculpture from the northern parts of South Africa, then known as the Northern Transvaal, received a lot of attention from galleries and academic researchers. These works were first viewed in an exhibition called the Tributaries in 1985 and were hailed as “… an art that was in no way mediated by the forces of the white market or white teachers”[1]. This proclamation suggests that this is art that was untainted by the conventions of the art world, was not created for art or consumption purposes, and the artists untrained formally. The sculpture of the 1980’s can be seen to “…echo the conditions of art making in the 1930’s in terms of interaction between two art forms, and the needs of two distinct communities. Craft and fine art, countryside and city, these dualities have resulted in a creative rejuvenation of immense variety and have been enormously influential in the developments of South African art in the 1980’s”[2].

The eminent rise of contemporary rural artists has led art historians, critics and academic researchers to see this art as transitional. By transitional, these works are seen as a transition from one cultural context to another, a cross fertilisation between western and African forms. The term ‘transitional’ becomes problematic, as many other words when African art is written about, because there are expectations of African art to be untainted and uninfluenced by other cultures, so these sculptures tend to have an international art theme and a sense of modernity. For instance when artists like Walter Battiss and Paul Gaugin started to make visual reference to other cultures like the Zulus and Tahiti, their works were not labelled transitional, but rather primitivist. This is problematic because in their case the spotlight is on the influences of their ‘new’ art forms whereas in the contemporary rural context the art works itself is seen as evolving and interbreeding. To put it clearer, Battiss and Gaugin were seen to paint new subjects whereas the contemporary rural artists were seen to have new subjects or influences evident in their works. This denies these rural artists any intellectual or creative pursuits.

I will now focus on the works of Jackson Hlungwani as an artist who has created forms that expressed his own sense of modernity and a belonging to a larger contemporary world. I will also look at how Hlungani, Noria Mabasa and Johannes Maswanganye created works that were meaningful to their communities while keeping an eye on the international theme. Hlungwani was ordained a minister in the African Zionist Church, leaving shortly afterwards to start his own sect, Jerusalem One Christ, in Mbhokota, near Elim in the then Northern Transvaal. His sculptures consist of religious and Christian metaphors. He eventually used his collection of religious sculptures to build a shrine-like altar, where he congregated with his new sect called New Jerusalem. Part sculptor, part shaman, he worked inside and for the community which he belonged to. He did not produce art for consumption or moneymaking purposes, but for reasons and pursuits known to him. He also has a range of sculptures with the theme of fish as a consistent influence. He believed that fish were the symbols of Christ and the people of the Northern province. Through Hlungwani’s sculptures one can witness an extension of the artist’s genius, skill and uniqueness. Works like Springbok, Bush devil and Rabbit are in modernist abstraction and have poetic titles, which invest these works with the artist’s own sense of modernity and belonging to a larger contemporary world. The works also have an international theme of Christianity and religion that is reminiscent of medieval forms. Aggrey Klaaste, in her essay titled ‘an Intriguing Encounter’, makes a comparison of Hlungwani’s art and themes to that of William Blake[3].

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[1] http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/library-resources/online%20books/neglected-tradition/the%20new%20generation%20sculpture.htm

[2] ibid

[3] http://www.mukondeni.com/html/Jackson%20Hlungwani.htm

ART

African Artist and the Muse II

Hlungwani’s sculptural altar ensemble makes for fascinating analysis. These sculptures were functional in that they served as iconography in his ‘church’ just like sculpture would in classical Roman cathedrals. They were invested in meanings and served the purpose of creating an ambience similar to that of holy lands. When these works are taken out of their rural context and placed in an urban and gallery/museum space, the works become installation in the way it is curated, with the stones at the bottom and the altar hanging from the ceiling, as can be currently seen at the Johannesburg gallery. The use of mixed media, that is, stones, rocks and wood, puts this work within the aesthetics of modern art. This piece of a collective was not made for art or consumption purposes, was made by an artist formally untrained and one who does not consciously follow aesthetic conventions of art. Nevertheless this art exists healthily within the modern context and has a lot of international art theme features. The western idea that African artists do not need training in art but have an innate ability to produce art is arbitrary and ignorant of the fact that sculpture have always been made as long as trees were available to the artists. And the idea of contemporary rural sculpture as transitional because it is a ‘cross fertilisation of cultures’ is also problematic because the process of making sculpture is ultimately common, that is carving, and the final product depends on the artist’s uniqueness and influences. So sculpture will ultimately be recognized as sculpture, whether modern or rural.

Noria Mabasa, in works like The floods and Carnage II, showed this notion of sculpture not being dependent on environment or gender, but relying on the artist’s skill and influence. She used her traditional bases to create works that are meaningful to her community. In Losha Woman, she sculpted a woman who is lying on her side as a traditional way of greeting elders. To ‘losha’ is to greet in Tsonga and Sepedi. This woman has beads embellishing her body. This work is highly aesthetic and representational of a people. Her immediate community can relate to this work from the title, the pose of the woman and her attire. Carnage II also makes sense to her community because she makes depictions of the floods that wrecked Venda in the mid nineteen hundreds. These floods were also believed to represent those in then Natal that influenced Mabasa through television footage. This clearly shows us that as late as the 1980’s, even rural artist must have had an experience of the modern world somehow. Hlungwani worked in Johannesburg before returning home to venture into fulltime sculpting. Besides this point, even his religious and Christian influence could be traced back to the missionaries, if we are to be technical. Mabasa also based Carnage II on television footage. Ultimately it is how these works are conceived and executed that puts them on international level. The fact that these sculptures seem to embody the African spirit or essence simply has to do with the fact that they are made in Africa by Africans depicting their African experience.

Johannes Maswanganye’s Nyamisoro dolls made a big impact on the art scence. These are sculptures made in the form of a kneeling person and have the body as a container and the head as a stopper. Maswanganye was commissioned by a sangoma from Johannesburg to make objects for his medicines. He used his traditional bases, of the Tsonga nhunghuvana, as a model to the sangoma’s needs. The nhunghuvana is a representation of a Tsonga female healer or diviner and Maswanganye used the Nyamisoro dolls as medicine containers or gourds. These containers are stylised and unique, and can be said to belong in a larger contemporary world. This would prove to be true when they later made their way to the Goodman gallery where they sold very fast. But it should be kept in mind that there dolls were not made for this purpose but were originally functional and invested with inherent meaning. They were part of divination. With these dolls Maswanganye used his traditional bases and influences to create works that are meaningful to his people.

Through the works discussed above, we can see that these artists created works that were functional to themselves and a larger community. These works were invested with meaning and captured the essence of that particular meaning. Hlungwani’s religious sculptures reflected his strong views and belief in religion, at the same time creating visual cues for his ‘church’ and congregation. They created a sense of a holy site in his community. At the same time the same works are preserved as installations in a contemporary context. Mabasa and Maswanganye used their traditional bases to put their communities on the map. They expressed their own sense of modernity in their art’s aesthetical values. Through sculpting all these artists used traditional materials to execute their skills, whether innate or taught. Ultimately these artists are artists, rural, contemporary or not; and they have skills, influences and material to execute their art. Whether their art is transitional or not is besides the case, it is the artistic merit and aesthetics that should be critiqued.

Bibliography

1. Kasfir, S.L. African Arts. 1992

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/library-resources/online%20books/neglected-tradition/the%20new%20generation%20sculpture.htm

http://www.mukondeni.com/html/Jackson%20Hlungwani.htm

POEM

a poem for uhuru
(special thankx for the four puzzle)
close your eyes picture a place where everything is pure
position dread'd ghetto-queen time you claimed your crown
get rid of all the masquerade embrace reality like faith
bury your memories of pain, remember to mark the grave
been through enough trials & struggle, time you hustled no more

you deserved to taste bliss the day you changed your name
found something rich than alter ego, together you bonded
like a maori tattoo inscribed on a mike tyson face
& every step that you take gotta reflect your ambitions
be six to six like casino slots always hide a surprise

somenight you spot a shooting star, rush to make a wish
remember behind every tragedy is a hidden blessing
when the door was shut last year a window became an entrance
someday you feel your battle's lost, take prisoners then bargain
since ain't nobody been in a defeated situation before
just fell blind to grace & looked for manna on the floor
catch a shade of an angel, baby look to the sky
scream your name ten times & send your dreams to fly
search for answers never surrender, be prepared for lies
never allow tribulations to eclipse your smile

trading places in your predicament never made it better
still I protest you felt that way just becuz you's a she
evil that befalls ghetto queens never spare the kings
contrary to what you think, sistas need no haven
tis a misfortune to be a man
tis the part you'll never understand 'til you walk a mile
catch a defenseless sista receiving beatings from your kind
sleep @ night catch a vision of her bleeding after rape
remember the face of the man since he could be you
count the stitches on her forehead after an assault you witnessed
when I lay down to rest, all I saw was cathy's face
sleeping pills never helped, could still hear her cries

close your eyes imagine living in the after-life
where queen uhuru will be bestowed of her crown at last
& every memoir of your suffering will be the text for grammar class
the ashes of your every poem will be sold @ auction
fetching zeros of currency you only dream of today
closest you'll come to touching riches, when you invest in self
fill your feisty portable torso with adoration that glows
your dome be the launching pad for your plan to fly
self-hate assassinates in secret, love spreads like nerve gas
look to the sky, count your blessings, take this moment to smile