First Sentence

""I wrote these memories not because of their historical or politial significance, but because they signified for me the expression of what life had meant in moments of actual living." Azaria Mbatha's autobiography is not art historical text, although it includes artwork. Trying to go through Mbatha's, now the artist, we hardly see Christianity and religious images as we read about from some writers in SA. The author says nothing about religion and Christianity. Mbatha has made many hundreds wood and lion cuttings, and some of them have been illustrating books like in the Jack Cope book, 'Tales of the Trickster boy' Cape Town.(as many artists do) Writers,esp. from SA where Mbatha is born do not tell us neither the Stations of the cross for Africa and the biggest linocut ever made was a special project which he made for Misereor in Aachen. Organisations like Misereor and Mbatha's capacity has fascinated Church members to understand the text so that others could understand what it means. This is part of the history and the work of the artist. An international well known and represented world wide, in South Africa they still treat him collectively as student, helped by whites' skills. We know now, that Mbatha was a teacher to these students. The political dimension we see in some South African Artists were started by Azaria Mbatha. the This can be seen in the very early 'resistance' pieces of Azaria Mbatha, as early as in (1962), through to overtly biblical motifs to political examples. Yet, in SA, they do not see this overtly or they do not want to see. I happened seeing Mbatha's WebSite, and I do not see this biblical motives they write about. ¤We are waiting to hear more from Mbatha both the author, Azaria and the artist, Mbatha. This book shows us a bit of him. Nevertheless, Mbatha explained in the beginning of the book and presented differently without Mbatha's word. What he says, for what he says we start now to read from Amazon.Nonetheless, the text can contribute to our understanding of artistic practice in South Africa, particularly in the early part of the twentieth century."