Samanthole Arts Foundation

OPEN LETTER TO A GIRL CHILD Dear girl child, please allow me to start by saying a small prayer for my girl child and boy children before I proceed with my letter. Ntate wesho wa Magodimong please give me strength and wisdom to raise my girl child in knowing that no joy comes in having affair with married men and older men. May she be protected from vultures of this world disguised as men, preying at young girls to satisfy their lust. Ntate Modimo, I am also praying that you give my sons wisdom to grow into responsible men who will never treat women as objects, especially sex objects that they can use and toss around just like that, Amen! Now that we are done with prayer, let me address issues regarding the letter. For sure many are asking why a letter to girl child specifically, my answer is simple, in a society that is patriarchal and always ready to cast stones to a girl child every time something goes wrong between her and a man, I sympathize with a girl child.  This le

Kagiso 'Bra Pat' Mautloa is a caring father figure to most of us the younger generation of visual artists in the country. Always willing to engage our ideas and the work we do in shaping the future complexion of the arts landscape. The intelligence of this great man lies in his soft speaking voice and poignancy of reason with touches of humor.  Kagiso Patrick Mautloa. Image courtesy of Chepapeism   I had come to know him through his work exactly sixteen years ago from a catalog of group exhibition mounted at the Polokwane Art Museum curated by Amos Letsoalo through partnership with Standard Bank. My elder brother Philip Moganoa Legate worked as an assistant administrator for Bag Factory Artist Studios at the time and the exhibition was focused mainly on the artists from the Bag, as we affectionately call it. Featured artists in this show included the finest of names such as David Koloane, Sam Nhlengethwa, Diane Hyslop, Wayne Barker and others. During my years at the

Ezrom Legae was educated at St Cyprians Primary School and Madibane High in Diepkloof, Soweto. He studied at the Polly Street and Jubilee Art Centres between 1959 and 1964 under Cecil Skotnes (qv.) and Sydney Kumalo (qv.). On the latter’s retirement in 1964, Legae was appointed art instructor at Jubilee Art Centre, later becoming co-director of that institution. In 1970, Legae was awarded a USSALEP travel scholarship, which funded travel and study in the US and Europe. From 1972 to 1974, he was director of the art programme at the African Music and Drama Association, before leaving the educational environment to become a full-time practising artist. In 1980 and 1981, he worked as a part-time instructor at the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA), and was Director of the Diepmeadow Town Council Art project until his death in 1999. (revisions.co.za)  Photograph  by Fernand Haenggi Legae is best known for his powerful visual commentaries on the pathos and degradation of apa

I remember the first time I saw her perfom was on the screen through one of the live performances of STIMELA many years ago. This was from one of the DVDs my eldest brother Leshoka Joe Legate had in his music collection - my love for music, especially African music is credited to the influence I had from my brother Leshoka. I used to be starstruck at how dedicated he was in buying original music albums during the time of music piracy that has hurt the pockets of many artists. My brother would always tell me that "You are an artist, or at least one day after matric you'll pursue art as a profession, you must respect artists' work and buy their music. Copying the CD is not good for the arts economy." His statement made a lot of sense and he lived by example. He inspired me to buy music when I was able to. I am glad that I buy original CD's and LPs to support the musicians today.  Last year I attended a live concert at the Market Theater that celebrated the 60th Birt

Daniel Sefudi Rakgoathe was born on the 25th of February 1937 in Randfontein, Johannesburg. His middle name 'Sefudi' means 'harvester' which is given to a person who harvested more than anybody in the village per season. His father Ephraim was a school teacher and his mother Phani Rebecca completed the then standard six, which according to their times was like matric of those years. He called his father a 'rolling stone' because they never lived in one place for a long time. I suppose in his own words, Dan would say 'Tate olle hlogo ya kgaka' - loosely translates a person disappears from a place that no longer gives him warmth and comfort many times. Kgaka (Guineafowl) is a   bird symbolic of human effort at survival. It is said that when a country looses its fertility, the guineafowls are the first birds to disappear. Eating head of Guineafowl may literally mean you keep on moving from one place to another. Plate 192, Maternal Anxiety, 1973

It has been a hard week for me since the breaking news of a young talented photographer Pretty Thabang Lebese-Lekota's passing. The sad news were shared on Facebook by her husband John Dashing Lekota, also a talented photographer. Photographer John Dashing Lekota   Pretty and I met few years ago in Pretoria to discuss future collaborations where she expressed interest to be the official photographer of my community projects and some exhibitions. Unfortunately whenever the projects show up, they coincided with other projects, making our collaborations impossible. However we kept in touch and followed each other's work closely.  I was mesmerized by the growth of her work in photography and modeling. She was a lover, a healer and creative individual. Often she'd send me text to say "Congratulations child, you inspire me. Hope you are well.' Pretty was a very selfless person who expressed interest in the advancement of humanity. In her poetry she committed

Job Patja Kekana was born on a New Year's day of January 1916 in Mokopane, Limpopo province. He made his first carvings while a herd boy. His father, a lay preacher and carpenter, died when Job was young, but had an important influence in that he wanted his son to have a Christian upbringing; as a result Job’s mother sent him to the only church school in the area, Anglican St Stephen’s at Rooisloot. A priest recognised the boy’s talent and in 1933 arranged for him to go to the Grace Dieu Mission near Pietersburg, where there was a thriving carpentry workshop. Unusually, this workshop taught carving, chiefly to produce decorated church furniture, an idea introduced by Father Ned Paterson (who had trained at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts), and developed by Sister Pauline,  CR . Under her guidance – and with Ernest Mancoba, who had worked at the school before him, as a role model – Kekana soon became a skilled sculptor, undertaking all manner of carvings for churches, fro

I was doing my second year at the art college when I heard of the passing of Jackson Hlungwani, a legendary sculptor who also had his own church at Bbhokota near Elim in the Northern Province, which he called ‘Yesu Galeliya One Aposto in Sayoni Alt and Omega’. Born Jackson Mbhazima Hlungwani in 1923 in Nkanyani Village, Gazankulu. He learned sculpting and curving from his father, initially by curving household objects. At a young age, Hlungwani sought employment through migrant labour; he worked at an asbestos mine in Polokwane, and for a coffee and tea merchant in Johannesburg, but returned home after losing a finger in an industrial accident (Coates, 2010). Hlungwani was ordained in the African Zionist Church in 1946, and later founded his own church at Bbhokota near Elim in the Northern Province, which he called ‘Yesu Galeliya One Aposto in Sayoni Alt and Omega’. From the 1960s, he built low stone wall structures at the site he called ‘New Jerusalem’, where he taught his

Karabo Moses Motsisi better known by his pen name Casey 'Kid' Motsisi was born in 1932 in Johannesburg and worked as a teacher in Pretoria. Picture Credit: Drum Magazine  First time I came across this Casey Kid Motsisi name must have been over a decade ago while I enjoyed the works of Es'kia Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Can Themba, Nat Nakasa and Bloke Modisane because these writers together worked at Drum magazine at some point or another. Usually they made mention of each other as if to say that we are in this art and cultural business together. By this time, I haven't read any of his work.  Earlier this year I drove to Makhado with Roelf Matlala, driving distance between Polokwane and Makhado is 109.7km and it would take you 1 Hours 22 minutes to visit one of the country's greatest African Literature connoisseurs Maano Tuwani. Our chance encounter with Morena Tuwani was at the opening reception of Es'kia Mphahlele Centenary Exhibition at Polokwane Art

Sonja Ferlov Mancoba and Ernest Mancoba with their son Wonga Mancoba in Denmark around late 1940s. Ernest is arguably the South Africa's first professional Black modern artist, and exhibited from the late 1920s onward.

Andrew Tshidiso Motjuoadi was a great artist who used a pencil medium as a lens he captured the social life of the people in the township as he observed them. By the standard of Bantu Education of apartheid, he was highly educated as he managed to study in Durban post matriculation studies. Prior to his death suffered from stroke, he attempted to obtain a BSc from University of Limpopo in 1967. Looking at his work, I see element of philosophical musings about the lifestyle and social habiting of his human subjects which he depicted them with confident pictorial conventions and a surge of meticulous patterning and detailed finishing. This picture of his pencil drawing published in a book Art & Artist of South Africa by Esme Berman in 1970 attests to my reading of his work. It's titled Township Musicians and was created in 1966. Wam - Shebeshebe#Chepapeism