Artikel i Daily News Dar es Salaam 26 april 1973.
Text av Scholastica Kimaryo
On Monday 16, this month, a one-man art exhibition known as “One-Sixty-One” was officially opened at the National Museum in Dar es Salaam by the Commissioner for Culture, Mr. H. D. Sembuche.
“One-Sixty-One” is the work of Charles Njau, a 22-year-old Form Six student of the Mkwawa Secondary School. According to the Curator of the Museum, Mr. Masao, this is one of the biggest art exhibitions held at the National Museum Hall in recent years. Most of them have been made up of between 75 and 100 hundred pieces, but this one, as the name suggests, is made up of 161 pieces of art.
The present exhibition, for which Charles took roughly ten months to prepare is expected to last until the end of this month. Most of you must be wondering why Charles is here while the rest of his class mates are studying hard for the forthcoming final examination! But this is the kind of price that our budding artist has had to pay all along.
Charles, I was reliably told, started holding the brush at the tender age of three. This should be no big wonder, for an artist is more often born than created. But whereas art is usually an inborn thing, one cannot overemphasize the fact that it certainly has to be nursed and encouraged.
And Charles had plenty of one and too little of the other. With only art running in his veins – for the famous artist, Elimo Njau, is his uncle – Charles had little encouragement and hardly any formal training in art. Besides the advantage that this did, perhaps, help in keeping his work most original and therefore most unique, one cannot help wondering how much more of a fine artist this young man would have been had he received some formal training in art, among other things.
Until today, however, art has not been seriously taken in our educational system, and Charles is most probably one of the many would-have-been fine artists who have for ages been trodden down by the inadequacies of our educational set-up only that he has managed to put up a fight, despite these odds.
On being admitted into secondary school in 1968, for instance, Charles had excitedly looked forward to attending art lessons, at least by belonging to an art club if not by receiving proper lessons in class. To his disappointment, neither of the two – art subject or art club – were there.
The following year, however, he gathered some courage and approached his school head for the establishment of an art club.
After negotiations, an art club was established at Mawenzi Secondary School, but with no art oriented patron. This did at least give him time to “legitimately” paint during school hours.
Painting materials were hard to obtain and Charles had, and still has, to depend on his pocket money to keep his artistic endeavours going.
“One-Sixty-One” is not Charles first exhibition, After the establishment of the art club in his school, he organized art exhibitions for the school’s Parents Day every year. One of his greatest exhibitions, he recalls, is the one he put up at Mkwawa during the Tenth Independence anniversary celebrations.
Charles’s current exhibition depicts several facets in everyday life. His paintings tell of oppression both of one race by another and of sex by another sex. They tell of the creation of the world as talked about in the Bible, of fear and hope, of superstition and frustration, of life and death. They also include paintings of landscape.
Some of the paintings tell their story through colour representation while others speak by way of symbols. In a few words, it is an impressive collection of art by a potentially fine mind both with ideas and with the brush. With a bit of more political orientation, Charles could go a long way in the manifestation of our revolution.
I was, for instance, disappointed by the inclusion of God in the struggle against oppression, for the two are items which should essentially be kept separate. And of course the fact that black – the colour identified with the long oppressed African man – should still be depicting death of horror, the ugly aspects of life, the way the white oppressed taught us.
These are but a few examples to illustrate why a clear ideological angel would have gone a long way in helping refine the message contained in this young artist’s works. If Charles could have come this far through his own effort, how much more can he (and certainly everybody else) achieve with a clearer political orientation?
Charles intends to make a professional artist. Until today, however, he has been taking art as a hobby. He makes no hiding about the fact his school certificate subjects only rank second in his list of priorities.
This is why he has decided to let his book work suffer neglect while he pursues his artistic endeavours.
He is also very thankful that his teachers had the understanding to give him the chance, and he promises to make up for it.
Asked what hopes he sees for the future, Charles beamed: “I am hoping to raise a bit of money through this exhibition – money which I´ll use to improve myself.”
But there may be brighter opportunities for Charles and others. Recently, a department of Fine Arts has been established at the University of Dar es Salaam where the former Commissioner of Culture, Mr. Sam Ntiro, will be lecturing. People like Charles may perhaps secure the opportunity to better themselves at national institutions like these.
Moreover, in the future, not all budding artists may have to go through what Charles has been facing, for I am reliably informed that syllabuses have already been written for the teaching of Art, Music and Crafts in all primary and secondary schools and Teachers´ Training Colleges. The accompanying text books are said to be on the way being written and some are even already with the printers.
And as we might remember, a school of Art was established at the Chang´ombe College of National Education, Dar es Salaam, last July. Its purpose is to take the teaching of Art, Music and Crafts seriously. There are 30 students for the course this year, and on graduation, most of them will be posted to Teachers Training Colleges, to hasten the production of Art teachers.
All in all, let it not be enough for you to just hear other people’s views on this art exhibition – “One-Sixty-One”. Go, see and judge it for yourself! It is certainly worth your while.
Photo: CHARLES NJAU, the young talented artist explains one of his famous paintings-“God Lives with Freedom Fighters”- at his “One-Sixty-One” one-man exhibition at the National Museum.