SOUTH AFRICA: The hunt is on to recover indigenous works of art lost during the Apartheid era

South Africa is scouring the globe to recover lost works by black artists that depict the turbulent apartheid era in a drive to educate young people about the struggle against white rule. Vivid paintings of Zulu warriors and strife-torn black townships were shunned as too controversial, or simply too African, by mostly white South African art collectors under apartheid, some paintings were even banned. But many works of art were purchased by foreign diplomats or visitors to South Africa at that time and spirited out of the country to adorn the walls of homes and boardrooms around the world. The Ifa Lethu foundation, supported by the ministry of culture, is trying to bring those works back to South Africa to display them in a touring exhibition of schools and community centres. "This is about inspiring South Africans and forcing both black and white to confront their past and to celebrate what we have been able to achieve despite all the pain," Ifa Lethu Chairwoman Mamphela Ramphele told Reuters at the project launch in Soweto. The travelling exhibition is also meant to educate young South Africans about the country's violent struggle against white rule and the sacrifices made by their parents' generation. "The apartheid era destroyed a lot of our heritage and destroyed a lot of the capability of our artists and workers...actually dismembered society, and in the interim a lot of our greatest talent died, or a lot of their creations disappeared. And to bring these artefacts back is very important for our self-esteem, for a better knowledge of ourselves and for the world to know who we really are," said jazz maestro Hugh Masekela. The project first started when Australian diplomat Diane Johnstone donated a collection of 17 art works amassed during a posting to South Africa in the violent 1970s to the Pretoria Art Museum. It was that donation that inspired a wider hunt for similar works of art. Ifa Lethu has retrieved more than 60 pieces, including sketches of ghoulish figures depicting the 1976 Soweto street riots, a picture of women protesting apartheid laws, and vibrant paintings of traditional Zulu life. Artist Sipho Ndebele sold his paintings of township life to Italian, German, and U.S. diplomats and visitors after they were largely shunned by local buyers. Now one buyer from the United States has agreed to return some of it to join the exhibition. "It is important for the young generation to know the history of our lives in art form," he said. "Despite the pain and grime of our lives, it is beautiful when we put it on paper."

ITN Source | October 6, 2006

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