Dr. David Koloane, artist, writer, mentor, friend and father of many in the arts would have been 82 years today

In 2009, it must have been March or April, I sat across the table with David Nthubu Koloane for our first mentorship session. I was overwhelmed by the grace of his humility and wisdom. He spoke softly in a voice that constantly reminded me he is not 'Bra Day' to me but an elder, to which I personally requested that I call him 'GrandDay' and he chuckled at this gesture but approved. 

Dr. David Koloane visiting my studio in 2016 to receive this gift I gave him for his role he played in the arts. 

For the past years since 2009, I always phoned him to wish him a great birthday. Last time I did that is today last year. May his soul rest in peace. 

I have met Granday years before this session, I have done so through my brothers Leshoka Legate and Philip Legate whom got to know him through my mother Maletsepe Makgato who worked at Artist Press Studio which was based at the Bag Factory in early 2000s. I remember in 2005 or 2006 my brother Philip had phoned me to watch Morning Live on SABC 2 because Dr. David Koloane was been interviewed. 

With Dr. David Koloane at the Memorial Service of our friend and fellow artist Judith Mason January 2017

Still mesmerized and inspired by his incredibly packed studio with his paintings, drawings, sculptures made from found objects such his famous juxtaposition of saxophone musical instrument with bicycle wheel rim. His charcoal drawings depicted largely cityscapes with fire braziers and township scenery punctuated by his famous Mgodoyi series of stray dogs in Alexandra.

Talking about this Umgodoyi series, the former president of South Africa HE Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki said Thabo Mbeki:  

"Umgodoyi isn't used normally. When (David Koloane) did it in his paintings, he was making a statement. That there'd be people who'd want to exploit our people's condition & behave like umgodoyi. We should be vigilant, not to have imigodoyi taking charge of our lives."

(https://t.co/QoN8xiGldi)

Painting of Doves I made from a Memoria Art Workshop of Dr. David Koloane organized by Standard Bank Gallery with Bag Factory 2019. 

Back to the first session, apologies for digression LOL. Prior to this meeting, I had the first chance encounter with him in person at Artist Proof Studio and I walked up to him with a sole purpose of asking him to be my mentor and he gladly agreed, giving me his email address and phone number which led us to this meeting.

I presented to him two of my flip files which compromised of my poems and sketches I had made with coloured pastels and pencils. The first 30 minutes or so, he planted his nose into the poetry, slowing flipping page after page whilst I sat in from of him, still overwhelmed.

"Your poems are interesting," he finally said. I replied to him saying thank you so much. "You have a potential to be a writer. Your poetry is largely imaginative and I need you to start writing about things that you see happening around you. That is how you'll train your eye for artistic visual language," he encouraged me.

This feedback inspired me to write over 100 poems titled Busy Jozi based on my experiences and observations of Joburg and its surroundings. In the upcoming sessions he was remarkably impressed with the growth of my poetry and he had another challenge. He told me that he is enjoying my observations on the Johannesburg streets during the day, I should now write poems about these places at night to create a poetic contrast. Here is one of those poems he gave me feedback on:

An Educated Hobo

 

He is a hobo everyone hates,

Always reading newspapers,

Instead of sleeping under them

 

While his counterparts

Marvel at watching old ladies

Of the suburb every Sunday morning

With their old gentlemen walking their dogs,

Visiting at the Zoo Lake to feed the ducks

And the hobos,

They both attack the food without ceremony,

He keeps quiet and studies the world around him

 

He is bolstered by

The welfare of the state

And a struggle to understand

‘The affirmative action system’

Written in bold letters on what he is reading

 

He has made Cnr Donegal and Kinross road

His home and library,

He is educating himself to become

A first White Hobo Professor

 

His ravenous of his hunger,

Is a result of reading too much,

White grannies come-by

To drop him left-overs

And he bends profusely to

Shower them with blessings.

 

By: Khehla Chepape Makgato 2009