The JAG honours fallen resistance artist
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind— But how could I forget thee? – William Wordsworth. So many of us do not know about the brave, the selfless, the unnamed, the unmarked, the forgotten heroes of our past who sacrificed everything, even their lives, for us to have our freedom today. Let us NEVER forget them, but instead ensure that their names and their deeds are forever close to our hearts and minds, keeping them alive in respect and love. Make sure you get to the JAG to share this poignant retrospective of the art of the master artist Thami Mnyele who was killed at the hands of the brutality of the apartheid security forces. Do yourself and your children this favour, and feed your mind. Details below on the conference to be held pre-exhibition and the exhibition details. From the end of November, the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) will be hosting an exhibition honouring Thami Mnyele, a South African resistance artist who died at the hands of apartheid security forces in the 1980s. The Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition opens at the JAG on Sunday, 30 November 2008 at 6.30pm, and runs until 30 March 2009. Thamsanqa “Thami” Mnyele (1948-1985) was a talented artist from Alexandra who was committed to bringing about social change in South Africa through the medium of art. This quest led him to exile in Botswana in the late 1970s, having decided to take a stand and actively participate in the struggle. In Botswana, Mnyele became a cultural worker with the Medu Art Ensemble, co-founded by his friend Mongane Wally Serote. Medu had units dedicated to the anti-apartheid struggle, dealing with music, theatre, visual arts, graphics and cinema, and counted among its ranks South Africa’s current Deputy President Baleka Mbete as well as musicians Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa. In 1982, Medu hosted milestone conferences relating to South African art, including the Symposium on Culture and Resistance in Gaborone and Culture in Another South Africa in Amsterdam. Today, the Thami Mnyele Foundation’s residency programme for African artists in Amsterdam continues to bear testament to the late artist’s far-reaching influence. As a result of their commitment to the struggle in general, and to the ANC in particular, Medu members became targets of the apartheid security apparatus. In 1985, a day before he was due to move to Zambia, Mnyele was killed along with other activists and civilians in a cross-border raid orchestrated by the South African Defence Force in Gaborone. The JAG will be paying tribute to the work of this seminal South African graphic artist during the retrospective exhibition, and...
South Africans, Let’s find our way. Today.
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to make the world a better place. A good starting point is always with ourselves and the question today must be, South Africans, “have we lost our way”? It seems like these days we’re more self-serving, selfish and self-centered than ever, chasing the buck, looking after number one and forgetting all about those around us, never mind those in need. These thoughts may seem negative, particularly from a website that promotes positivity, but we have to be realistic about where we are at, in order to move forward we must stop tip-toeing around issues, face facts , expose and communicate our truth. (For various reasons it is necessary to spell out that our call to action is based largely on the world which we know, which is the pulsing, moving, exciting, edgy, hectic, crazy big African city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Most Represent readers will know that already. Ed) Since when did we stop being AWARE and responsible? When did we stop caring about our human and political rights, about our neighbours, about our future? When did we stop being optimistic, when did we decide that it wasn’t our issue, that we’re prepared to give away our power, give away our rights, give up on our potential, our promise and a bright future for everyone? Why are we so de-politicized, leaving it all up to someone else, choosing to rather be placid, uninvolved and disinterested, then complaining, blaming and pointing fingers at every chance? Why do we accept to live a mediocre life and allow the MAJORITY of our people to continue to live in a horrific trap of poverty, violence and hopelessness? How did we let that happen? We have EVERYTHING we need to make our country the place we want it to be, talent, passion, people, inventiveness, resources, natural beauty, diversity, potential and a great sense of humour – everything we need is here. But we have lost our way. When I look around me at so-called ‘intelligent, educated citizens’ and listen to some of the things that come out of their mouths, I feel like shouting “WAKE UP”! But freedom of expression is a basic tenet of democracy and so I either swallow my frustration or on the odd occasion, when I have the energy, waste some of it challenging them. For I do believe that most people are good, many have had no guidance or lost their way, some have no backbone, no integrity and little vision, but most people are good. The saddest thing for me is to see just how successful the brain-washing tactics...
We will be back!
