Points of entry

Mozambique’s most celebrated artist, Malangatana (1936-2011) was a prolific artist whose career spanned over 50 years. He exhibited in 40 countries during his

lifespan.²⁶⁴ This included perhaps as many as 64 solo exhibits in 15 countries, and participation in

approximately 234 group exhibitions across the globe.²⁶⁵ He received prestigious awards not only from the

Mozambican government²⁶⁶ but also from the governments of Bulgaria,²⁶⁷ Brazil,²⁶⁸ Portugal²⁶⁹ and France,²⁷⁰ as well as

264 For purposes of this calculation, countries that have undergone major transitions such as Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Germany (formerly divided into East and West) have been treated as single entities.

Madeira has been treated as a part of Portugal, whereas Macau has been listed separately.

265 For purposes of quantifying numerically, travelling exhibitions have been treated as multiple entities. The difficulties in

constructing an accurate record is discussed in the introductory chapter.

266 Medalha Nachingwea, 1984. E. Lemos, A. Cabral, J. Navarro, et al.

Malangatana. Maputo: Museu Nacional de Arte, 1986, p.51. Order of Eduardo Mondlane, First Class, 2006. F. Jamisse “Malangatana

pertence ao mundo e a sua arte é Patrimόnio da Humanidade”. Maputo:

Domingo, 11 June 2006, p.14.

267 Awarded to the artist in 1987, the year of his exhibition in Bulgaria. A. Aresta (ed), Malangatana: Nota biografica. Maputo:

Escola Portuguêsa de Moçambique, 2005, p.25.

268 Order of the Southern Cross (Ordem do Cruzeiro do Sul), 1990.

Ibid.

269 In 1995 Malangatana was inducted as a Grand Official of the Order of Infante D. Henrique. Anon. “Correntes d’Escrita Abre com

Malangatana”. Maputo: Zambeze, 17 February 2005.

270 The French Ambassador in Mozambique conferred on Malangatana the distinction of “Comendador das Artes e Letras”. Anon. “Pelo Governo Frances: Malangatana condecorado”. Maputo: Noticias, 21 September 2007, p.1.

from Unesco,²⁷¹ and the Prince Claus Foundation.²⁷² Despite limited formal education Malangatana received Honorary Doctorates from universities in Mozambique²⁷³ and

Portugal,²⁷⁴ and honorary awards from professional academies in Italy²⁷⁵ and Portugal,²⁷⁶ as well as the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).²⁷⁷

271 Malangatana was appointed Unesco’s Artist for Peace in 1997.

272 Mia Couto presented the eulogy. M. Couto, “Malangatana, the man who painted water”. Harare: Gallery, n.15, 1998, pp.13-14.

273 Malangatana received an honorary doctorate from ISPU in 2007. R.

Machava, “Na Arte, Communicação e Linguagem: Malangatana é Doutor Honoris Causa”. Maputo: O Pais, 14 September 2007, p.14; R. Senda,

“Valeu a Pena Viver”. Maputo: Savana, 14 September 2007, p.30; G.

Filipe, “Malangatana: Uma ‘honorios’ que ultrapassa toda a causa de um so homem”. Maputo: Noticias Cultura [supplement], 19 September 2007, p.2; Anon. “Malangatana Doutor Honoris Causa”. Maputo: TVZine, October 2007, p. 45.

274Anon. “Malangatana Honoris Causa”. Maputo: Noticias, 6 January 2010, p.1; E. Bernardo, “Malangatana recebe doutoramento honoris causa em Portugal”. Maputo: Savana, 19 February 2010, p.17; M. Rebelo de Sousa, “Malangatana”. Maputo: Savana, 26 February 2010, p.7; Anon.

“Malangatana recebe distinção/ Malangatana honoured”. Maputo: Border Post, 26 February 2010, p.10.

275 Malangatana’s biographies make enigmatic references to an honorary award from the “Academie Tomasse Campanella Artes e Ciências”. Lemos et al. Op.cit. P.51. This award was mentioned in passing in a

contemporary report that focused on his receipt of a Gulbenkian

scholarship. Anon. “Duas Consagrações Internacionais para Malangatana Ngwenha”. Lourenco Marques: Brado Africano, 17 October 1970, p.1.

276 Malangatana was one of four African intellectuals admitted to the Academy of Sciences, Lisbon, 2009. Anon. “Pintor Malangatana na Academia de Ciências”. Maputo: Noticias, 16 September 2009, p.27;

Anon. “Malangatana Toma Posse na Academia de Ciências de Lisboa”.

Maputo: Noticias, 10 November 2009, p.11; Anon. “Malangatana: ‘Quero deixar um contributo’ na Academia de Ciências de Lisboa”. Maputo: O Pais, 2 November 2009, p.32.

277J. Navarro, “’Foi a Primeira Exposição África no Chile’ – conta-nos Malangatana”. Maputo: Domingo, 25 December 1994, p.16.

Literature on Malangatana frequently affirms his

international standing. It is particularly apparent in Mozambican accounts that perceptions of his international success play a significant role in his elevation as a national hero. As will be discussed in the following chapter (4.4.3), he is in fact often referred to as an

“ambassador of Mozambican culture”,²⁷⁸ “artistic

ambassador”,²⁷⁹ or even straight “ambassador”.²⁸⁰ While there can be no doubt that Malangatana’s accomplishments were extraordinary, it remains imperative to engage

critically with the conditions that both enabled and constrained his career rather than to perpetuate an ahistorical, hagiographic approach that is regrettably evident in much of the literature on the artist.²⁸¹

This analysis of the artist’s exhibition career builds on several published biographies, usually presented in forms resembling a chronologically ordered curriculum vitae.

These biographies appear in numerous catalogues,²⁸² as

278 M. Couto, 1998, op.cit. P.13.

279 J.N. [Júlio Navarro], “As Várias Fases da Obra de Malangatana (vii)”. Maputo: Tempo, 15 June 1986, p.52; Rhandzarte, 9 Artistas de Moçambique: Expo ’92. Maputo: Museu Nacional de Arte de Moçambique, 1992, p.57.

280 Couto, quoted by J. Matlhombe, “Malangatana na poesia”. Maputo:

Savana, 2 April 2004, p.31.

281 Statements in Mozambican publications such as: “His paintings feature in the main art galleries of five continents” demonstrate a lack of understanding of the peripheral position of African artists in the Eurocentric art world. Anon. [Indico] p.21.

282 E. Lemos, A. Cabral, J. Navarro, et al. Malangatana. Maputo: Museu Nacional de Arte, 1986; C. Carvalho, O. Vedor, P. Soares, et al.

Malangatana Valente Ngwenya. Lisboa: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, 1989; Rhandzarte op.cit.; F. Pereira, M. Vicente, M. Niederhuber-Jakel, et al. Malangatana: Pintura, desenho, gravura, ceramic.

well as in Navarro’s monograph on Malangatana.²⁸³ Seemingly the initial impetus to compile a fairly

comprehensive listing of exhibitions came on the occasion of Malangatana’s first retrospective exhibition in 1986.

284 Notable later versions include the booklet Nota

Biografica which covers the artist’s career until 1998,²⁸⁵ and a select listing compiled in 2006 on the occasion of the artist’s 70^th birthday.²⁸⁶ The University of Lisbon’s Art Africa website lists exhibitions till 2009.²⁸⁷ While these and other sources reflect information available at the time of their publication, they are strikingly

similar in content. Entries are typically scanty in

detail, and usually lack precise information. Generally, individual and group exhibitions are differentiated, and listed with little more than their year and country.

Cities are sometimes indicated, and gallery names, where these appear, are seldom accurate. Later versions, on the whole, repeat the formulations of earlier records and seldom provide further detail. Numerous errors are

repeated, often verbatim. There is a general consistency regarding omissions of particular exhibitions, suggesting that their existence was not known or noted in earlier versions.

The challenge in making sense of Malangatana’s exhibition history is compounded by the fact that a significant

number of his exhibitions were not accompanied with

Lisboa: ISPA, 2004; A. Sopa, Malangatana: 70 anos, vida e obra.

Maputo: Os Amigos de Malangatana, 2006.

283 Navaro, 2003, op.cit.

284 Lemos et al. Op.cit.

285 Aresta op.cit.

286 Sopa, 2006, op.cit.

287 Online: http://artafrica.letras.ulisboa.pt/pt/artist/207.html

catalogues and very few were reviewed. Many of the catalogues and reviews that were produced are rare and difficult to access. Texts appear in several languages, mostly Portuguese. English texts are comparatively

scarce. Accordingly, the exact nature, content and impact of many exhibitions is difficult to establish,

particularly for anglophone researchers. While this chapter is principally concerned with analysing and interpreting Malangatana’s exhibition output, the sheer incompleteness of published biographies has compelled it to be simultaneously concerned with contributing to a more accurate and substantive record of exhibitions.

Malangatana’s exhibition career has been divided into three parts for the purposes of this analysis. Each

section coincides with a historical period. These periods should not be understood as representing three distinct phases in the development of his art, mirrored in abrupt changes in his works. Rather they serve to highlight significant shifts in the broader historical context, where changing conditions impacted on the possibilities available to him as an artist. These temporal frames have been introduced to facilitate the identification of

patterns across a long career, patterns which would be harder to discern if a fifty year career was treated as one homogenous era; or if one fragmented his career into a multitude of small parts, as done by Navarro.²⁸⁸ That

288 Initially outlined in J.N. [Júlio Navarro], “As Várias Fases da Obra de Malangatana (i)”. Maputo: Tempo, 4 May 1986, p.52.

Subsequently elaborated over seven consecutive editions of the weekly magazine. Seemingly, Navarro’s motive was to stress Malangatana’s importance by highlighting periods, in the way that artists such as Picasso have been treated by art historians. Whereas Picasso’s

each of these broad periods can be broken down into particular phases, and that some patterns or themes

extend or reoccur in subsequent phases is self-evident.

The first period spans the years from Malangatana’s initial participation in a public exhibition in 1959 until 1974, the year of the political coup in Portugal.

For ease of reference this will be referred to as the anti/colonial period.

The second period covers the years from Mozambican

political independence until the end of the Cold War in 1989. The Cold War was equally important for the earlier (anti/colonial) period, when the West’s anti-communist agenda fuelled the colonial regime in Mozambique and

buttressed its allies Rhodesia and South Africa. However, the nature of the impact of the Cold War on foreign

relations took a major turn in the post-independence period due to Frelimo’s adoption of Marxist-Leninism as state ideology. The end of the Cold War heralded the death throes of the Civil War that devastated

postcolonial Mozambique, although the official

termination of this war would drag on until the National Peace Accord in 1992.²⁸⁹ 1989 was also the year that

periods are denoted by significant stylistic changes, Navarro relies largely on biography to frame different ‘phases.’

289 One of the consequences of the end of the Cold War was the change in the political regime in South Africa following the unbanning of the liberation movements early in 1990. This led to the withdrawal of South African support for Renamo, contributing decisively towards the end of the Civil War. Many Mozambican nationalists have resisted calling this conflict a civil war, since the war was instigated by external forces. Furthermore, for many Mozambicans the brutality of Renamo denied it the respect of being called an army, as is evident in the popular use of the term ‘armed bandits.’ However, external

Frelimo formally abandoned Marxism-Leninism, paving the way for the new constitution in 1990. Accordingly, I have termed this period the post independence/ revolutionary period for ease of reference, although it can be argued that the Revolution was displaced by neo-liberalism earlier in the 1980s.

The third phase deployed here is the post-Cold War period that is commonly referred to as the era or age of

globalisation. For the purposes of this study this extends until 2010, the eve of the artist’s death (5 January 2011).

The introduction of these three periods as a framing device enables a reading of changing national and

international relations that were critical in shaping the horizons available to Malangatana. Exhibitions held

within and beyond the national borders, while inter-dependent, are treated separately, in order that the national and global reach of Malangatana can be more

closely examined. Solo exhibitions are distinguished from group exhibitions, since they carry a different burden of representation. It is assumed that divergent publics

developed around Malangatana’s works, and that these can be identified not only between the national and

international, but also across and within them.

origins and senseless violence were also a feature of other

historical conflicts that are commonly referred to as civil wars, hence my decision to use this contested term. See journalist Carlos Cardoso’s argument against using the term ‘civil war’ to describe the conflict. P. Fauvet and M. Mosse, Carlos Cardoso: Telling the truth in Mozambique. Cape Town: Double Storey, 2003, p.84.