The Art of Life in South Africa by Daniel Magaziner (review)

In The Art of Life in South Africa, Daniel Magaziner examines the history of art education under apartheid in South Africa. The book focuses on Ndaleni, an art school for black South Africans, and considers the travails and triumphs of its artists and their teachers under white supremacy. At Ndaleni, students and teachers were bound together in learning “the art of life”; due to lack of funds, they improvised materials for artistic production. While the school existed, between the 1950s and 1980s, about 1,000 students graduated; about 2,000 could not be admitted due to constraints of space. This shows how Ndaleni appealed to many black South Africans as one of the few places they could develop their art. According to the Bantu Education Act of 1953 (p. 3), the purpose of the school was to preserve white supremacy, the segregation between African and European education—what Oguibe (2004) refers to as “Play me the other.” The book is organized into seven chapters, with a prologue, an epilogue, and endnotes.

The prologue considers the essence of education and examines the tension between academic classes and hands-on practical experience, drawing on a wide range of theorists/educationists on the issue of creative thinking and handcrafts as a means of sustenance. In chapter 1, “A Hillside in South Africa,” Magaziner laments the dearth of adequate art materials at Ndaleni: The lack was so severe that it was tagged a “major enemy” (p. 3). Teachers and students resorted to scavenging to improvise materials, a practice epitomized by Radebe’s (1965) drawing of “a man in black and brown shoe polish” (p. 2). Despite inadequate materials and other challenges, the mementos left behind by the students exemplify their wonderful experience at Ndaleni. The students were highly creative, intelligent, and confident that whatever is imaginable is achievable irrespective of the Bantu Education Act. Twentieth century South Africa is also examined through the lens of the “colonial mentality” within which art teachers and students at Ndaleni endeavored to develop strategies to sustain their creativities (p. 11). Magaziner discusses art at Ndaleni as a manifestation of aesthetic consciousness that intersects the mind and the world, a beauty portrayed with “conviction that the world is worth beautifying” (p. 16), the prevailing circumstances of lack, repression, violence, frustration, and social segregation notwithstanding. At Ndaleni, art is the life of self-examination through which one transcends Bantu Education and the repressions of apartheid.

Chapter 2, “Craftwork,” explores what constitutes a genius among the Bantu of South Africa, looking at the works of Hezekiel Ntuli, George Pemba, Ernest Mancoba, and Moses Tladi, among others. Despite racism in South Africa and how it is often used to discuss art practices, the works of these artists are considered to be too outstanding to be subjected to “racial categorization” (p. 28). Magaziner stresses the need for African artists to explore their cultural background to achieve remarkable success (p. 33); even more so given that cultural heritage has been a vibrant source of inspiration for the African artists (Ijisakin 2016). With respect to preserving “the genius of natives” (p. 49), Magaziner considers the implications of exposing indigenous African artists to European techniques and the relevance of arts and crafts in the school curriculum. In chapter 3, “Art,” Magaziner discusses scholars such as John Grossert, Arthur Lismer, John Dewey, and Leopold Senghor. Grossert was apprehensive of the “loss of black South Africa’s cultural tradition” (p. 54) that could result from exposure to formal education. Grossert fought for African art that is truly African; he propagated the Bantu education art program, especially at Ndaleni. Like Senghor, Grossert believed in eloquent expression and aesthetic achievements of African art; both “rejected the notion that African artistry was lost” (p. 67) through contact with Europe.

The fourth chapter, “Journeys,” traces how Ndaleni started as a Methodist mission settlement in 1847. Magaziner examines the contributions of...