Title: End of the road
Medium: Oil on board
Signed and dated: 1976
Unframed: 35cm x 53cm
Framed: 64cm x 82cm
In the painting, End of the road, an informal shop referred to in South Africa as a “spaza shop” is represented. You can see people buying fruit and vegetables from a table set up outside the artist’s house.
Pemba’s life was filled with hardships and setbacks. He lost his father, Titus, whom he dearly loved and that supported his art endeavours while still in high school shortly after his first exhibition in 1928. In his twenties, his first wife Dinah deserted him taking his son whom he dearly loved named Titus with her. He reconnected with this long-lost son in later years. His second marriage to Nombeko Eunice Mndi in 1939 was a lasting relationship. They were married for 47 years and had 5 children (Huddleston 1996:33). In 1963 Pemba lost his mother Rebecca and, in the years, following her passing he lost both his brothers, Jimmy and Timothy. This made 9 children two wives and a failing business his problem. Pemba himself had a 40-year battle with alcoholism and only stopped drinking in 1972 when he was 60 years old (Huddleston 1996:50-57). Through all these troubles, Eunice supported him and kept food on the table with her general store known as “Gabby’s Store.” In many ways this painting honours Eunice who sustained their family and enabled Pemba to keep on working as an artist.
