User:Judy Seidman/Thami Mnyele draft

Thamsanqa "Thami" Mnyele portrait from catelogue for "A New Day" exhibition, at the Botswana National Art Gallery and Museum in 1980.

Thamsanqa ("Thami") Mnyele (10 December 1948 - 14 June 1985) was a South African artist, cultural activist and liberation fighter with the African National Congress. His art portrayed the experiences and demands of people living in poor Black communities confronting the apartheid state. In 1979, in the wake of the Soweto uprising he went into exile in Botswana, where he became a spokesperson for the culture movement linked to South Africa's struggle for equality and social justice. He produced artwork, posters and graphics that were illegally distributed throughout South Africa; and joined the ANC army Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mnyele was killed in a cross-border raid by South African National Defence Force commandos in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1985.

Early life

Mnyele was born in the poor and over-crowded township of Alexandra, in Johannesburg. His father was a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and his mother was a domestic worker. He was sent to boarding school in a village northwest of Pretoria when he was eight, where he learned to draw.

Political and artistic awakening

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, in Alexandra township, Mnyele became involved with poet Mongane Wally Serote and other cultural activists inspired by the black consciousness movement of Steve Biko, to fight for equality and an end to apartheid injustices. He also met and was influenced by artist Dumile Feni. He joined Mhloti Black Theatre in Alexandra where he acted the role of Malcolm X in a township performance. In 1972-3, he spent 18 months studying at the Swedish Lutheran art center, Rorke's Drift in Natal.

Untitled Mnyele drawing, 1975, from his "Black Consciousness" period; the original of this picture has disappeared following his death in Botswana in 1985

In 1973, he worked briefly as a graphic artist in Johannesburg, at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, and then as a graphic artist for the print-shop run by the South African Council of Churches Council for Higher Education (SACHED), and worked on Staffrider magazine for Ravan Press. During the Soweto uprising in 1976 he held an exhibition called “A New Day”, with artist Fikile Magadlela. and sculptor Ben Arnold at the Orlando Community Hall in Soweto (there were no art galleries or museums in any Black South African townships under apartheid). He refused to exhibit work in art galleries located in “whites only” areas.

File:Thami Mnyele hugh masekela detail.jpg

Detail from poster designed by Thami Mnyele in 1984 for Hugh Masekela performance; made from sketch of musicians at Culture and Resistance Conference, including Kingforce Silgee (far right) and Hugh Masekela (second from left).

In exile with Medu

In 1979, Mnyele joined the liberation movement, the African National Congress, and went into exile. In Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, he joined the cultural collective called Medu Art Ensemble. Between 1978 and 1985, Medu had between thirty and fifty members at any given point, including amongst others Mnyele’s friend Wally Serote , writers Mandla Langa, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Bachana Mokwena, and Marius Schoon; musicians Jonas Gwangwa, Hugh Masekela, Dennis Mpale, Tony Cedras and Steve Dyah ; artists Judy Seidman and Phillip Segola; and cultural writers Muff Anderson and Gwen Ansell. Mnyele was chairperson of Medu for several years.

Medu published a newsletter, Medu, which carried creative writing, graphics, and cultural commentary, and designed and printed posters in support of the liberation movement. The apartheid government regularly banned both the Medu newsletter and Medu posters; however these were distributed illegally throughout South Africa, and inspired cultural work and poster production for the liberation movement throughout the 1980s.

poster designed by Thami Mnyele for the Culture and Resistance Conference, silkscreen, Gaborone, Botswana 1982

Culture and Resistance festival

In 1982 Medu brought together several thousand cultural activists from South Africa in a cultural conference in Gaborone, Botswana, entitled "Culture and Resistance", together with an exhibition called “Art for Social Development”. The Conference adopted the phrase “Culture is a weapon of struggle”, giving direction to cultural activity in support of the liberation movement.

Between 1980 and 1985, Mnyele produced numerous posters and graphics for the African National Congress, and sister organisations such as the South African Congress of Trade Unions. As a participant in graphic workshops held by the ANC in Lusaka, he designed the ANC logo that is used today. Mnyele became an active member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC’s armed wing, and studied guerrilla tactics at an ANC camp in Caxito, Angola in 1983.

poster designed by Thami Mnyele for ANC Lusaka; showing blind trade union leader Viola Hashe addressing a 1952 "Defiance Campaign" rally against apartheid laws in Fordsburg, Johannesburg (based upon photograph from Drum Magazine)

untitled graphic of the liberation struggle drawn by Thami Mnyele, 1984

Art in the liberation struggle

Mnyele held several exhibitions of his artwork at the Botswana National Gallery, notably Statements in Spring (1980), and several joint exhibitions with Medu artists. His work was displaced in a number of international exhibitions of artwork for the liberation struggle. He maintained that artwork made to support the liberation struggle must be seen as an integral part of his artistic expression, stating that: “For me as craftsman, the act of creating art should compliment the act of creating shelter for my family or liberating the country for my people. This is culture.”

Assassination: The Gaborone Raid

On the morning of June 14, 1985, the South African Defence Force attacked exiles in Gaborone, Botswana, killing Thami Mnyele and eleven other people.

The SADF commandos who killed him took his portfolio with all current artworks; a week later the South African military showed the portfolio on television as evidence of “terrorist” activity; 25 years later the works in the portfolio have not been recovered.160

Commemoration

Mnyele was buried in Gaborone, at a mass ceremony for six people killed in the Gaborone Raid. His remains were reburied in a state-sponsored ceremony in 2005 outside the township of Tembisa, east of Johannesburg.

The Thami Mnyele Foundation in Amsterdam was established in 1992 to build artistic exchange between African countries and the Netherlands; the foundation holds regular workshops, scholarships, and residencies for African artists in Amsterdam. In 2009, the Johannesburg Art Gallery held a major retrospective of Mnyele’s artwork, and the work of Medu Art Ensemble.

Museum and Art collections

• Botswana National Museum and Gallery, Gaborone
• Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
• MTN Collection, Johannesburg South Africa
• Freedom Park, Pretoria, South Africa
• Fort Hare University Art Collection, Eastern Cape, South Africa
• South African History Archives (Posters)

External links

• On Medu at [4]South African History On-line (SAHO)
• On the [5] Culture and Resistance Conference, by artist David Koloane
• An archive of Culture and Resistance Symposium resides at [6] the South African History Archive (SAHA).
• Thami Mnyele Foundation in Amsterdam

References

Sources

• Kellner,C. and Gonzalez,S. eds, Thami Mnyele + Medu art ensemble retrospective, Jacana Media (Pty), Johannesburg, RSA, 2010
• Seidman,J, Red on Black, the Story of the South African Poster Movement,STP, Johannesburg, RSA, 2007
• Wylie, D.,Art and Revolution: The Life and Death of Thami Mnyele, South African Artist, University of Virginia Press,2008
• Messages and Meaning, the MTN Art Collection, David Krut Publishing, Johannesburg, 2006.
• Ansell,G, Soweto Blues, Jazz, Popular Music & Politics in South Africa, Continuum, New York, 2004