Biography

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George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba

“Pemba was an artist in love with painting, unashamedly claiming the best of both European and African traditions as his own. Possessed of a deep humility, a profound sense of human dignity, and a loving sense of humour, his memory deserves a special place in the nation’s heart”- Hayden Proud

Art like many other things were used by the apartheid government of South Africa to marginalize black society. If you were black during the apartheid era it was impossible to receive proper art education. It was also difficult to exhibit your work and you were rarely taken serious as a professional artist. Regardless of these very real challenges George Pemba persevered and established himself as a painter producing his work over a period of more than 60 years. Pemba is regarded as part of a group of artists known as South Africa’s black art pioneers. This group were: George Pemba, Gerard Sekoto, Ernest Mancoba, Gerard Bengu and John Koenakeefe Mohl. Of this group, Pemba already held his first exhibition in 1928 at the Feathermarket Hall in Port Elizabeth (Huddleston 1996:21). He was only 16 at the time but considered himself a professional artist. This makes him the first of these black art pioneers to be considered a professional artist/painter and not a mere crafter[1]. An article written about Pemba’s exhibition in The Eastern Province Herald, referred to him as an art prodigy (Huddleston 1996:22).

George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba was born in 1912 in Mddledrift just outside Alice in the Eastern Cape. His parents, Rebecca and Titus, ensured a strict Christian upbringing, and highly valued education. They still however considered themselves Xhosa and the traditional rituals and ways of life was highly valued. He grew up in Hillskraal on the Northern side of Korsten, and initially attended a mission school close to their house. At the age of 13 Pemba received a scholarship for attending the Patterson secondary school in Port Elizabeth. Here his talent was noticed by his woodworking teacher, Leig Page (Huddelston 1996:20). This support lead Pemba to hold his first exhibition in 1928. Shortly after this exhibition he tragically lost his father in a motorcycle accident. Because of his father’s death Pemba placed his art aspirations on hold and enrolled at the Lovedale Teacher Training College in 1930.

While studying to become a teacher Pemba was hospitalized at the Victoria Hospital in Port Elizabeth in 1931 with a burst appendix. While recovering in hospital, he started to make drawings of patients out of boredom. The drawing he made of a man named Ncgobo was shown to the Matron Miss Stoney that showed it to a good friend of hers, Ethel Smythe who was an art lecturer at the University College of Fort Hare (Huddleston 1996:33). Smythe after seeing his talent in art, arranged a bursary that gave him the opportunity to study under her at the University College for a period of five months that same year. During this time, Pemba received his first formal art training in painting and drawing. She also introduced him to watercolour painting.

Pemba returned to the Lovesdale collage and completed his teacher training. In 1934 he started to work as a full-time teacher at the Higher Mission school in King William’s Town. It was during this time that an old family friend Rev Robert Shepard, started to promote his art on his travels to New York and London. Through Shepard he obtained a commission of 12 illustrations of John Bunyan’s: A Pilgrim’s Progress, for the Religious Tract Society in London (Huddleston 1996:27). During this period Shepard as well as the principal of the University College of Fort Hare campaigned for Pemba to receive a study bursary to attend Rhodes University. In 1937 the Bantu Welfare Trust awarded him with the means to study as an external student for 4 months with Prof Austin Winter Moore at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. Again, the focus was placed on water colour painting and the subject represented were neutral referencing European art traditions (Huddleston 1996:27-28). It was also during this time that both Rev Shepard and Professor Winter Moore entered a work by Pemba for the May Esther Bedford Art Competition. Pemba took first prize and Sekoto awarded with second place (Huddleston 1996:32).

In 1942 after meeting Gerard Sekoto during a visit to Cape Town his focus from doing illustration work shifted to producing more socially aware paintings. Sekoto convinced Pemba that water colours were too “British” to represent Africa with, and emphasized how oil paint is a better medium to represent social injustice and hardships experienced by black South Africans in. This shift in focus was informed by Social Realism that originated in the 1930s in the USA. Themes such as poverty, political corruption, and injustice were explored by followers of this movement. It was also known for its naturalistic and quasi-expressionist painting style as well as its more general renderings of everyday life.

Sekoto and Mancoba perused their art aspirations abroad living in exile for the remainder of their lives. Pemba, Bengu and Mohl because of their choice to remain in South Africa had profound influence on the younger generations that followed in their footsteps. In 1944 Pemba wrote, “I do not know if ever I will become a great artist, but an artist of my own nation I surely am to be.” It was also during this year that he set out capturing the indigenous cultures and tribal life in South Africa with his grand tour travelling to Johannesburg, Durban, Basutoland, and Umtata funded by the Bantu Welfare Trust.

Pemba had three phenomenally successful exhibitions in Port Elizabeth. One in 1948, funded by Dorothy Tomlinson, a second in 1957 and the third in 1961 all at the same venue, the Mutual Arcade in Main street. The last two exhibitions by Pemba was retrospective exhibitions held at Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg honouring this legendary artist from South Africa in 1991 and 1992. George Pemba received an Honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of Fort Hare in 1979. In 2004 the South African government posthumously bestowed on Pemba the ‘Order of Ikhanaya’ in gold.

[1] Craft the time was regarded as less important and associated to tribal life at the time.

Sources:

  • Huddleston, Sarah, George Pemba – Against All Odds, Johannesburg, 1996.
  • Proud, Hayden & Feinberg, Barry (Ed.). George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba: Retrospective
  • Exhibition Catalogue. Cape Town: SA National Gallery, 1996.
  • Stevenson, Michael & Bosland, Joost. ‘Take your road and travel along’ The advent of the modern black painter in Africa. Cape Town: Stevenson Gallery, 2008.
  • Social Realism. [O]. Available: https://www.britannica.com/art/Social-Realism-painting/accessed 05/08/2020.
  • Music and Culture Forms Resistance. 2019. [O]. Available: https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/music-and-culture-forms-resistance/accessed 06/08/2020.