Samanthole Arts Foundation

The national department of Sports, Arts and Culture has been in the news again - not because it is introducing proper arts education in schools, not because it building new provincial art museums and galleries, not because it is building community art centres, not because it is implementing strategies for audience development for theatres, galleries and museums BUT because it has proposed possibility for an installation of a “monumental” flag, 100m in height, to serve as a national landmark and tourist destination to the tune of R22m. The department of sports, arts and culture plans to spend R22m on installing a flag that is more than 100m in height. Stock image.  Image:   123RF/rawpixel Defending this decision despite the public outcry, Minister Nathi Mthethwa said “And it’s disingenuous to say it's not important, if it's not important, your sister organisation AfriForum wouldn't be in court today fighting for the old flag.  So I think we must clarify this thing

  This compilation of black women artists, emanates from the misconception that there are very few practicing women artists in South Africa. The way the visual art structure is designed, only few black artists make it to the top let alone black women artists. I would like to honor and celebrate these artists and share their work with general public who may not have known them before. I say with this blog post, KNOW THEIR NAMES and CHECK OUT MORE OF THEIR WORKS ONLINE. The following artists are arranged in no chronological order. Suffice to say there are still many more. Helen Sebidi, detail of  The Dispossessed , 2011-2012. Acrylic on canvas. 165 x 220 cm. All images courtesy of the Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg. 1. Helen Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Mmakgato  Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmangankato Helen Sebidi  (5 March 1943) is a South African artist born in Marapyane (Skilpadfontein) near Hamanskraal, Pretoria. She  lives and works in Johannesburg. Sebidi's work has been represented in

Can Themba - The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi is a captivating piece of work chronicled by Dr Siphiwo Mahala, arguably the most clinical contemporary scholar of Can Themba. It is a treat for those who appreciate the African literary work and those fascinated by how literary culture contributed to the revolution of liberating black people from the chains of apartheid and white supremacy. Mahala brings forth the dynamisms of the character of Can Themba, born Daniel Canodoce Themba,in a simple dictum usually unexpected from a seasoned scholar or academic who is now a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Johannesburg. “To understand Can Themba,to understand the forces that made him and broke him, we need to get inside the House of Truth where his life unfolded” (Mahala, 2022). The reviewer in his studio reading Can Themba The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi by Siphiwo Mahala.  Mahala let us inside the House Of Truth, Can Themba

One of the African art ancestors, the late professor  Es’kia Mphahlele,  said: “The arts have been served by alternative institutions primarily because the state has never been interested in using schooling to promote creativity.” This was the reality of art education for black South Africans during the apartheid years; suffice to say, little has changed — instead it has worsened.  Khehla Chepape Makgato in his studio library 2021. Courtesy of Royal Art House. Instead of making creative subjects such as fine art, dance, music and theatre compulsory in our schools and part of extramurals in our communities as previously denied to us by apartheid, we have destroyed what little we had. Mphahlele advocated what he termed “alternative art education”, by which he meant an education that furnishes the creative minds with training outside the traditional systems such as the universities and colleges.  Schools in South Africa offer a subject called arts and culture as part of the syllabus, but