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Locating Malangatana: Decolonisation, Aesthetics and the Roles of an Artist in a Changing Society

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Locating Malangatana: Decolonisation, Aesthetics and the Roles of an Artist in a Changing Society LOCATING MALANGATANA: DECOLONISATION, AESTHETICS AND THE ROLES OF AN ARTIST IN A CHANGING SOCIETY Mário de Andrade Pissarra DNDMAR001 Thesis Presented for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Sociology UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN February 2019 Supervisor: Prof Ari Sitas, Sociology, UCT. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people provided support to make it possible for this study. I am grateful to my supervisor Prof Ari Sitas for his encouragement, advise and patience; as well as to Prof Carolyn Hamilton and the Archives and Public Culture Research Initiative for an enabling space to test out some of my initial research. I am especially grateful to Dr Alda Costa (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane) who generously facilitated access to information and people and, together with her husband Prof Armando Lopes and their son Nuno, provided me with a homely base in Maputo during my two brief research visits. Thanks too, to Prof Yusuf Adam for hosting a presentation of my proposed research to UEM students, co- organised with FLCS and Dr. Costa. I am grateful to Julietta Massimbe, then director of the National Museum of Art of Mozambique, for facilitating my access to Musart’s archives and collection, and to Musart’s Afonso Malasa and Nelson Mondlane for assisting this process. Eng. António Quelhas and the Friends of Malangatana were instrumental in organising for me to visit the Matalana Cultural Centre, in arranging some meetings on my behalf, and assisted this process immensely by seconding Carla Barraias to assist with translation. Thanks to Malangatana’s close associates Champolino Ngwenya, Dillon Djindji, Evaristo Magaia, Lindo Hlongo, Mankeu, Luís Bernardo Honwana and Benites Lucas José for making time for me to engage with them on questions of interpretation of Malangatana. I was fortunate to meet with Mutxhini Malangatana, the artist’s son, and to compare notes with Antόnio Sopa, then working for the National Archive of Mozambique (AHM). I also benefitted from conversations 2 with José Teixeira (Anthropology, UEM), and the artists, educators and all-round arts activists Gemuce and Jorge Dias. Beyond Mozambique, I was fortunate to pay short research visits to Washington DC, New York, and London. I am especially grateful to Janet Stanley (Warren Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art), who facilitated my access to the unparalleled archives at NMAFA, helped me navigate the dispersal of the Harmon Foundation archives at the National Archives, and generously accommodated me on both visits to DC. My gratitude to Eshara Singh (Bessie Head Library) for her assistance in sourcing South African references. I further wish to thank Alexandre Pomar for his willingness to share and exchange information, and for responding to draft chapters, something for which I am also thankful to Alda Costa, Yusuf Adam, and Harun Harun. Zoe Storrar-Molteno, who cast a critical eye on my use of language deserves special mention; and I am grateful to Dolphina Cogill and Alexandra Daniels for assistance with graphs. Although circumstances led me to adapt this study from its initial conception as a comparative case study, I would be remiss to not thank all those who assisted my work on Sam Ntiro. In particular, I benefitted from several exchanges with Elsbeth Court (SOAS). Prof Elias Jengo (University of Dar es Salaam), Andrew Baines (formerly of the Commonwealth Institute), Tim Fletcher (National Lutheran Council), and Judith Hecker (Museum of Modern Art, New York) were all helpful at various points of this study. Many friends and colleagues helped in various ways, from loaning and accessing material on my behalf and assisting with technical aspects to keen discussions on aspects of 3 my research and accommodating me – my thanks to Gavin Jantjes, Omar Badsha, Stacey Stent, Dr Nomusa Makhubu, Prof Lize van Robbroeck, Fiona Mauchan, Justin Davy, Hayden Proud, Rae Cheddie, and Anthony Chase for helping me on my way. My deepest gratitude goes to my close ones, Alex and Tariro, it has been a longer journey than intended and their understanding and support has made this thesis possible. Finally, I wish to acknowledge financial support from the National Research Foundation (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015), and University of Cape Town (2011, 2012). My gratitude to the British Council for covering my travel costs to London. DECLARATION I declare that this thesis has been composed solely by myself and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any previous application for a degree. Except where it states otherwise by reference or acknowledgment, the work presented is entirely my own. 11 February 2019 4 ABSTRACT This thesis responds to the dearth of detailed studies of pioneering African modernists; and the need for fresh theoretical frameworks for the interpretation of their art. Building on recent scholarship that applies decolonisation as an epistemic framework, it argues that a productive decolonial discourse needs to consider concurrent forms of nationalism and cultural agency in both the anti/colonial and postcolonial periods. Central to this approach is an analysis of the aesthetic responses of artists to the experiences and legacies of colonialism. This thesis is grounded in a study of Malangatana Valente Ngwenya (1936-2011), Mozambique’s most celebrated artist. It draws substantially on archival material and rare publications, mostly in Portuguese. The artist’s career is located within changing social and political contexts, specifically the anti/colonial period, and the promise and collapse of the postcolonial revolutionary project, with the pervasive influence of the Cold War highlighted. Following the advent of globalisation, the artist’s role in normalising postcolonial relations with Portugal is foregrounded. Parallel to his contribution to Mozambican art and society, Malangatana features prominently in surveys of modern African art. The notion of the artist fulfilling divergent social roles at different points in time for evolving publics is linked to an analysis of his emergence as a composite cultural sign: autodidact; revolutionary; cultural ‘ambassador’; and global citizen. The artist’s decolonial aesthetics are positioned in relation to those of his pan-African peers, with four 5 themes elaborated: colonial assimilation; anti-colonial resistance; postcolonial dystopia; and the articulation of a new Mozambican identity. Key to this analysis is an elaboration of the concept of the polemic sign, initially proposed by Jean Duvignaud (1967), adapted here to interpret the artist’s predilection for composite visual signs that, in their ambivalence and often provocative significations, resist processes of definitive translation. It is argued that through a juxtaposition of disparate forms of signs, and the simultaneous deployment of semi-realist and narrative pictorial strategies, the artist develops a complex, eclectic and evocative aesthetic that requires critical and open-ended engagement. The thesis concludes with provocative questions regarding the extent to which the artist’s aesthetics reflect hegemonic national narratives, or act to unsettle these. Keywords: Malangatana, Mozambique, decolonisation, decolonial aesthetics, modern African art, contemporary African art, polemic signs 6 “… this birth of a new world in our country is difficult and bloody.” Malangatana Valente Ngwenya, 1989.1 1 The artist quoted in Anon. “Malangatana Ngwenya: Yesterday, today and tomorrow”. Maputo: Indico, n.3, 1989, p.28. 7 LOCATING MALANGATANA: DECOLONISATION, AESTHETICS AND THE ROLES OF AN ARTIST IN A CHANGING SOCIETY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 2 DECLARATION 4 ABSTRACT 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 8 ACRONYMS 12 INTRODUCTION 14 i Background: Locating this study 14 ii Purpose of this study 23 iii Research process, scope and methodology 24 iv Challenges and limitations of study 27 v Structure 30 CH 1 DECOLONISATION AS A DISCURSIVE FRAMEWORK 33 FOR MODERN/CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART 1.1 Unpacking ‘African art’: Discursive phases 33 1.1.1 The ‘discovery’ of African art 33 1.1.2 The emergence of modern and contemporary African art 35 1.1.3 A decolonial (African) art history: First steps 41 1.2 Unpacking ‘decolonisation’ 54 1.2.1 Decolonisation and the transfer of power 54 1.2.2 Broadening the discursive base of ‘decolonisation’ 57 1.2.3 Cultural decolonisation 63 1.2.4 Decolonisation and nationalism/s 71 1.2.5 Decolonisation and Mozambique 75 1.2.6 Reviving decolonisation/s 85 1.2.6.1 The Decolonial Turn 86 1.2.6.2 The rise of the Fallists 87 1.3 De/Merits of a decolonial discourse 89 8 CH 2 COMPARATIVE DECOLONISATIONS: IMAGINED 92 NATIONS AND AESTHETIC RESPONSES TO DECOLONIAL MOMENTS 2.1 Imagining the nation/s 92 2.2 African precedents 96 2.2.1 Sudan: National and international imaginaries in the 96 art of Ibrahim el Salahi and Mohamed Shibrain 2.2.2 Nigeria: Natural Synthesis and the 101 concurrence of nationalisms 2.2.3 Senegal: Negrititude and Ecole de 117 Dakar 2.2.4 Morocco: The Moroccanity of Farid Belkahia 128 2.2.5 East Africa (Uganda/ East Africa): Sam Ntiro and the 131 utopian imaginary of ujamaa 2.3 Notes towards a decolonial aesthetic 134 2.3.1 Nativist aesthetics and their ideological currents 135 2.3.2 Syncretic aesthetics and their ideological currents 138 2.3.3 Interventions in the public realm 140 2.3.4 Implications for a study of Malangatana 141 CH 3 CHARTING EXHIBITION PATHWAYS 142 3.1 Points of entry 143 3.2 The anti/colonial period (1959-1974) 150 3.2.1 Exhibitions in Mozambique, 1959-1974 150 3.2.2 International exhibitions, 1961-1974 157 3.2.2.1 A rapid ascent,
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