Conquering the world from Kalulushi with colour

By Andrew Mulenga

Fourteen kilometres outside of Kitwe, the little town of Kalulushi is more known for the Chibuluma copper and cobalt mine, its heartbeat. But perhaps it is more famous in sporting circles being the home of some of Zambia’s oldest sporting clubs, Chibuluma Rugby Club and Kalulushi Modern Stars FC. The latter being the formative club for football legend Gibby Mbasela and CAF 2012 champion and BBC's African Footballer of the Year 2012, Christopher Katongo.

Mother and child study, pencil and
charcoal on paper, by Sakanya Banda

This off-the-grid mining town is hardly a place that one would expect to be on Zambia’s visual arts circuit having no conventional art materials, art and crafts markets, galleries or patrons and being occupied mostly by miners, it is hard to imagine a painter can actually live and work there surviving on art alone.

Sakanya Banda, however, appears to have defied these odds. Born in Kasempa, North Western, Zambia in 1969, he moved to Kalulushi as boy and has lived there ever since except for a four year stint as a freelance artist in South Africa between 2001 and 2005.

Like most Zambians of his generation, Banda grew up making his own toys particularly clay models and cars made of wire, usually nicked from damaged fences. His skill was above his peers and he shortly began experimenting with the drawing of wildlife and nature from memory as he spent his early years near Kafue National Park before the shift to Kalulushi.

“The distance to school was a two-hour walk and sometimes I never used to go because it was unbearable to walk a long distance for five days more especially in cold seasons and considering that shoes were not known, in short we used to walk bare foot. At times we would encounter big animals like rhino and elephants on the way to school, but that never prevented me from completing my primary school,” he points out that this was nothing compared to the 72km from his home village Kamakechi to the nearest district Kasempa which would take 19 hours on foot.

From the fields, oil on canvas, by Sakanya Banda

 In fact it was the days that he would miss school that he would practice on his art. It is when he enrolled in Grade 10 at Kalulushi secondary school that he would later be advised by one teacher to take up art as a subject but the self-confident young artist rejected the advice claiming: “if it (art) is in me it will still come out”. Surely he did continue to draw and paint and after completing grade 12 he enrolled at the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation (MEF) which at the time was providing training in Pottery and Ceramics. At the height of its popularity, the now embattled MEF boasted The Dag Hammarskjold Memorial Library that was considered among the best on the African continent attracting students from as far as Canada and India.

On a trip, oil on canvas, by Sakanya Banda

“I still have memories of my days at MEF the place is more like a home for me because that is where I gained this knowledge. I used to borrow books on art from the library and get ideas of some great artists like Picasso and Kandinsky and learn the way they approached art, he says.

“I still feel I am very far and I am constantly searching and buying books on art because I want to compete with the greatest modern artists like Andy Thomas. I love the simplicity in the way he does his works,” he says.

Have you heard, oil on canvas, Sakanya Banda

But it is rather odd that Banda would single out an artist like Thomas for inspiration, because apart from their choice of material, oil on canvas, it is hard to find any other comparisons. The 58-year-old American chooses rodeo and cowboy portrayals, historic scenes of his country’s civil war as well as the portraiture of some of his iconic compatriots mostly former presidents, and although his subjects have an animated immediacy, his choice of colours is very subdued, almost reptilian and unenthusiastic. In comparison, Banda’s work is too versatile to isolate from its broad subject matter to his choice of lush colours. As for his style, to cut a long story short, the artist seems to effortlessly blur the line between realistic and abstract painting. Whereas his subject matter, again encompasses anything from wildlife to small crowd scenes and still life.

Pounding, oil on canvas, by Sakanya Banda

In much of his abstract work, he prefers to employ flat, two-dimensional picture planes and at times reduces the human form to renderings as minimal as a single, hard edged brush stroke making it hard to believe that this is the same person who makes detailed pencil drawings. But not all his pencil and charcoal works are purely representational as can be seen in an untitled mother and child study that is an inventive throng of arcs and crescents and appears to evoke a blend of African tribal sculpture and early Christian iconography.

Speaking of Christianity, Banda stresses that positive thinking and his religious beliefs are a driving force in the production of his work.

Wildlife painting is Banda's first love

“You should be in a good mood and listening to good music like Gospel, Praise and Worship, like I do.  I find it very difficult to paint without music or at least the radio on,” he explains he enjoys working long hours when fully inspired, particularly when he has all his favourite material in front of him.

“I like this medium because of its slow drying time which allows me to work on a painting sometimes for 3 weeks which involves blending. I have found oil to be the best medium for me though I work with acrylics and water colours as well.”

Selling, oil on canvas, by Sakanya Banda

Banda insists his career is a journey and he is enjoying every step. He joined the Zambia National Visual Arts Council in 1998, and the same year he submitted his first abstract painting Lost Child in the National Exhibition at the Henry Tayali Gallery, it was purchased by the Norwegian Embassy.

Based in the small mining town of Kaululushi,
Sakanya Banda sells his work internationally

A year later, a late friend called Joe Henry organized an exhibition for him at Model Arts and Niland Gallery in Ireland, it sold out in less than a week. He has also participated in numerous other group exhibitions such as the Cat on the Moon Art Gallery also in Ireland, and Articles and Frames Art Gallery in Pretoria, South Africa. In 2013 Professor Mel Coffee and Professor Chike Anyaegbunam both of Kentucky University of Journalism organized an exhibition of his works at Gallery Hope in Lexington Kentucky, USA.

Locally he has also enjoyed commissions at the Hotel Edinburgh and Arabian Nites in Kitwe. His largest market however still remains USA, UK, and South Africa. Just as he refused to be forced into art class as a pupil, he refuses to leave Kalulushi insisting that he wants to stand firmly rooted on his home ground. Perhaps his attitude rings true to his local football team Kalulushi Modern Stars FC nicknamed “Stubborn Kalulushi” because since its establishment in 1962 it has been a giant killer, known to hardly ever lose home matches, similarly, Banda appears to be conquering the world from this obscure little mining town, and one can only hope he keeps up the creative spirit. 

Refugees are human too

By Andrew Mulenga

Imagine having to suddenly flee your home, without warning, the possibility of never returning again. You are immediately on the run with the sound of screams, bombs and gunfire in the background, a quick headcount of your family they are scattered, some at school, others at work, how do you get hold of them?.

Refugees I, acrylic on canvas, 2015 by George Muzamba

Where do you run to, where do you hide, what do you carry with you? You cannot carry the home theatre system you are still paying for, that pot on the stove will have to remain where it is, even if you remember to carry your phone charger what use will it be, you are on the run.

This is of course an experience the majority of us Zambians have never experienced having been born in blissful peace and becoming so accustomed to it, that most of us take it for granted often toying with the notion of civil strife as can be seen in the battles of the key-board warriors or online-politicians who continuously threaten each other on popular social media just because they belong to rival political parties or different ethnic groups as has become the recent trend in Zambian politics.

Nevertheless as Zambians we can only imagine what it feels like to be displaced as George Muzamba of Kamwala South in Lusaka is doing through paintings dedicated to displaced peoples and exodus of refugees.

“For about two years now I have just been playing around with this issue of refugees. The images that I see on TV touch me and I always think this is sad, why should such things happen to people, these are families, women and children, what next for them,” laments Muzamba who is an avid follower of African current affairs.

“I don’t know  I feel very bad when I see this movement of refugees, I just want to put them on the canvas, just to get the images of suffering out of my mind, the only way I can do it is to paint, even when the images are from my imagination, I really wonder what these people go through”

Refugees II, acrylic on canvas, 2015 by George Muzamba

He confesses that he has never seen a group of refugees first hand but is aware that ever since the 1960s, Zambia has been the second home to countless refugees especially during the Kenneth Kaunda-led liberations struggles of Southern Africa, once harbouring the likes of former South African president Thabo Mbeki and Robert Mugabe.

“You see what really pains me is when I try to put myself in these peoples shoes, I think look, these are human beings just like me, yes refugees are human too,” he says.

This year, the World Refugee Day -- annually commemorated on 20^th June --- was held under theme “Get to know a refugee” and in a speech at Lusaka’s Mulungushi International Conference Centre last week, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative to Zambia Ms Laura Lo Castro announced: “The number of people displaced by war, conflict or persecution reached a record high of nearly 60 million around the world in 2014! An average of 42,500 people became refugees, asylum-seekers or internally displaced persons, every single day – that is four times more than just 4 years ago. And 50% are children.”

Rebels on the move, acrylic on canvas, 2015 by George Muzamba

She expressed concern that “as this tragedy unfolds, some of the countries most able to help are shutting their gates to people seeking asylum. Borders are closing, pushbacks are increasing, and hostility is rising. Negative propaganda inciting to xenophobia, discrimination, and casting refugees as gate crashers or terrorists is on the increase.”

Addressing top government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives from the refugee community and the press, Lo Castro emphasized that if people adhered to this year’s theme and personally got to know least one refugee and took time to listen to their individual stories, problems such as discrimination and xenophobia would not exist.

“Here in Zambia people have luckily continued to enjoy prolonged peace and stability and a sustained open door policy that since decades has welcomed refugees fleeing conflicts and persecution. In addition, the Government of Zambia has recently allowed former refugees - who have spent 20 and more years in the country and are unable or unwilling to return to their home country - to remain legally in Zambia,” stated Lo Castro.

Nevertheless, in the painting Refugees 1, Muzamba fills a large canvas from end to end with a sea of people, they appear seated on the ground most resting their heads between the palms of both hands in despair, the group seems to be waiting for further instructions or placement. You cannot tell out their individual faces, maybe because you are not supposed to. And to enhance the feeling of sadness, the artist decided to use a monochromatic aesthetic, of greys and black which conceivably adding to the gloom, enhancing the image’s reflection hopelessness and misery.

Artist, George Muzamba believes refugees should
be treated in a more just and humane manner

At 39, Muzamba has not yet shown his work in a gallery and by art world yardsticks, this makes him a late bloomer. He has been a self-taught sign writer adorning market stalls around the capital from as far back as he can remember but, encouraged by his mentor Albert Kata head of the Kanyama Art Centre (KAC), Muzamba has been practicing with acrylic on canvas. He says his first works were imaginary scenes of wildlife, and he would even sell one or two although his main source of income has always been sign-writing. In fact, when there are no tenders on the signage front, you will find him at KAC working on his canvases.

“I don’t think I can do the wildlife secenes anymore, even if they used to bring a bit of money here and there for now, my passion now is really with the refugees, this is what moves me, I really want to add my voice and tell the African leaders that enough is enough of these civil wars, people cannot be living on the run,” says the artist who is a dedicated member of the Rastafarian movement, believing in peace, love and harmony as well as adhering to the tenets of African emancipation hero Marcus Garvey of Jamaica and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.

Muzamba observes that as an artist who has only undergone informal training chances may be slim for him to get his work into a gallery or exposed internationally, but he has promised himself that this year, by all means he will take some of his work to the Henry Tayali Gallery in the Lusaka for the Independence Week exhibition in October. Undeniably, his work may not be top-of-the-shelf, but it is honest and unpretentious as he says, it comes from the heart. 

“I think I have the confidence now, I will just take my work, if it is accepted in the gallery then it will be a plus for me. Yes I need money, but even if they don’t buy it, my message on the situation of refugess has to get out there,” he says.

He adds that the challenge he faces at the moment is the purchase of art material, he did not realize that the material used for studio practices such as canvas, tubes of acrylic and horse hair brushes can prove quite costly as compared to the paints and brushes that he uses for sign writing which can be bought at comparatively lower prices in the many hardware stores all over Lusaka.

“But, art is what I love doing and I won’t stop, I was born to do this. It’s also a continuous learning process, what I’ve discovered with painting, the more you practice the more you get better especially playing around with colour, you get to understand how to control light, how to create the illusion of shadings and perspective you know,” he says.

In his short experience he observes that since there are not too many galleries in Zambia, government should think of supporting artists like himself by commissioning them with commemorative murals to beautify the city on the walls of spaces such as the flyover bridge and the football stadiums. Muzamba also thinks the corporate support for the visual artists is not as good as that of musicians.

“I am just a beginner but I have been watching for long time, (visual) artists never get the support. I am always at exhibitions at Henry Tayali gallery, I never see a pop up banners from MTN, Airtel or Barclays, but when it comes to supporting the musicians they are number one, I can’t say, maybe the artists don’t approach companies for support, I am not a member of the Visual Arts Council yet,” says Muzamba.

Certainly, the artist does have a point with regards corporate sponsorship but also as he rightly interrogates, there is no telling whether VAC is making an effort to approach business houses for support.

Meanwhile, GroundUp a South African community news organisation with a focus on social justice in vulnerable communities reported that “On World Refugee Day this weekend, South African police, traffic officials, metro police, brand specialists, immigration officials and defence force members shut down Cape Town Station's taxi terminus as part of Operation Fiela. The four-hour operation brought commuters to a standstill as taxis were not allowed in or out on a busy Saturday morning. Dozens of foreign nationals were arrested.”

According to GroundUp, South African Police Services (SAPS) Western Cape Media Centre confirmed that during the operation counterfeit goods to the value of R150, 000 (approx. over K91, 000) were confiscated as well as substantial amounts of cannabis. 86 arrests were affected; 81 were undocumented foreign nationals, one was for possession of cannabis, three were for counterfeit goods, and one was for an outstanding warrant of arrest.

GroundUp sent the authorities a set of questions that included: On what legal basis was the action carried out?  81 of the 86 arrests were for undocumented foreigners. How do SAPS and SANDF personnel know who is a foreigner? Since foreigners are not legally obligated to carry documents on them, on what legal basis can you arrest a foreigner for being undocumented?, Did SAPS have warrants to search the stores? How can people get their confiscated good back, especially since some storeowners allege they did not receive receipts for their confiscated goods?

A response from Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut, however, stated: "[K]indly be advised that Saturday’s crime operation in Cape Town was executed in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act, and any person who is of the opinion that he or she was unlawfully arrested or treated can address the matter by lodging an official compliant with authorities."

Operation Fiela, a project aimed at eradicating crime in South Africa has been described by a number of SA media houses as “legitimising xenophobia”. 

Miko talks recent show, studio practice, art education in Zambia

By Andrew Mulenga

As hinted last week, artist and Zambia Open University (ZAOU) Senior Fine Art lecturer William Miko has been on something of an express train regarding his activities of late, but perhaps most notable, is his return to the studio as a practicing artist and subsequently exhibiting in a three-man show entitled Borderless Women, which opened on 8 March and ran until to 20 May 2015 at the Voksenåsen Cultural Centre in Oslo, Norway.

Miko in his Ibex Hill studio before shipping his
recent works to Norway early this year

He shares his experience of the Norway exhibition and how he managed to find time to paint when he was not marking student’s assignments, and as usual he also stresses how important university level education for Zambian visual artists.

“I must thank the Management and staff of Voksenasen for this display opportunity and indeed my two colleagues Narek Aghajanyan from Armenia and Jamal Ahmed from Bangladesh for agreeing to exhibit with me,” he says

“It really felt highly satisfying, I had to call on inherent perceptive instincts of working for this themed show. As you are aware the theme Borderless focused on celebrating the power of women and their contribution to humanity as evidenced by such pieces of artworks like The portrait of a street vender which was inspired by the resilience of street venders along Lumumba road here in Lusaka, mostly women, who I see every morning converge, mount their merchandise along busy traffic roads and dismount their stalls late in the evening as I drive past them on my way to and from university work in Lusaka West.”

Portrait Of A Street Vendor, 2015, Oil on canvas,
112 x 115 cm by William B. Miko

He stresses that this portrait is a hypothetical representation of that individual woman’s hard work and contribution to human existence.  The exhibition also included a cluster of 10 small paintings called the African Orgasms series and most of the medium sized pieces on display were crowd scenes, as well as a new body of work which was inspired by folklore, that he calls the Anthropo-zoomorphic series.

But what is perhaps most fascinating about Miko’s work is the production process, although viewers and collectors alike never get to experience this. His style is in fact a mark-making process and when you find him in full swing working on a painting, you hear the violent and almost primal scratches of a palette knife as it scrapes paint against the canvas either reductively or additively depending on what aesthetic he wants to achieve or perhaps depending on which direction the life-forces or his emotional state will guide him. Many artists who work in passionate repetitive rhythms like abstract expressionists or stone sculptors, often enter in to trance-like frenzies spurting their creativity out in spasms something akin to the work of a mystic who is heaving what is within.

Tubalye Tubalye - my brother-in-law, 2015,
Oil on canvas, 125 x 68 cm by William B. Miko

Interestingly, Miko indicates that when he is in an exhibition looking at one of his finished works on the wall, he can still hear the echoes of his palette knife scratching away at the canvas, for him, the creative process of a painting does not end in the studio, but follows it like a spectre.

Nevertheless, contrary to the widely held observation that painting as a medium is dying out in Europe, Miko’s disagrees.

“Painting is just a material of expression that the West has been using for centuries now, if it is less appealing or perceived to be so that is still a matter for debate. People out there and the rest of the world are still responding to paintings as a means of expression. We had a very good crowd at the opening: Among other guests were the likes of Norwegians who have collaborated and worked with Zambia, former ambassador to Zambia Terje Victel, and many others, Brit Botheim and Aase Marie from Kunstbanken, Prof. Michael O'Donell including long gone from Zambia artists such as Gemain Ngoma and Victor Mutelesha and my own brother Jerry and his family,” he says.

Can I Be The Witness, 2015, Oil on canvas,
199 x 150 cm by William B. Miko

“Also, the purpose of holding a show differs from artist to artist, I guess I am more concerned with the people coming to see the show once it’s on display than sales attained at the end of it. However, I can say that on the spot, a large piece titled Can I Be the Witness a commentary on why the reports on the death of Dag Hammarskjold here in Zambia ignored African eye witnesses, except for one or two.”

He says this painting immediately attracted the attention of the Voksenasen Management and has since been collected and joins another large piece of his called The Journey that was purchased in 2006 and is displayed in the centres public foyer.

“It is important that the value of artworks reflect consistency with one's development as an artist. Usually, I have no challenges in valuing my artworks as art does not depreciate and the value of art is usually aligned with career honesty and which is hypothetically constant,” he adds.

Commenting on his passion to teach and the work he is doing at ZAOU, Miko shares his sacrifices, his vision as well as the everyday challenges he faces.

When he is in the studio, the ZAOU senior
art lecturer calls himself a prisoner of art

“This personal commitment, however, comes with its share of advantages and disadvantages: to state the latter, its disadvantage is being compelled to work ‘26 hours’ (twenty six hours) a day, one has to find two extra hours to sleep. There are also implementation frustrations that need to be dealt with in actualising this degree in fine arts being the first of its kind since independence in 1964,” asserts the artist who is also Vice Chairman of the Lechwe Trust, a non-profit organisation that focuses on art scholarships and the collection of art by Zambian artists.

And one has just to deliver all round, finding time for oneself to be creative in the solitary confines of an art studio is what one must always strive to achieve. So, I have had to learn to create time within timeless moments. Apart from administrative and theoretical engagements, there must be three to four hours a day or night that must be invested in studio art practice as an artist.”

He further suggests that educating Zambia’s creative citizenry and artists to university degree levels is inevitable if the country is to remain competitive in today’s global art world. He adds that ZAOU currently has over 100 (hundred) fine arts students on BA degree level of study and their enthusiasm and anxiety to learn is what compels him to carry on despite all odds. Miko is also the architect of a philosophy he has coined “correcting a national anomaly”, in reference to the long absence of an art degree in Zambia and the general deficiency of art education. The philosophy attempts to respond to these questions.

Born in Mwense, Zambia, in 1961, Miko remains an artist and arts ambassador with an international reputation. He holds a Masters Degree in Fine Art (1999) from Middlesex University, London, UK and has conducted public lectures on art in Zambia, Nigeria, France, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States. He lives and works in Ibex Hill, Lusaka.