Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
WERE it not for the keen eye of one Zimbabwean now based in London, the art from Cyrene Mission’s pioneering class of artistes may never have been discovered.
Made between the years 1940 and 1947, the art from 40 boys left Zimbabwe’s borders 71 years ago, after catching the eye of such dignitaries as Britain’s King George VI, who visited the school in 1947. Taken overseas to be shown in top museums in London, Paris and New York, over time the paintings, which had been taken to be stored at the basement at St Michael’s and All Angels Church in London, were forgotten.
This was until a Zimbabwean expatriate’s eyes lit up upon seeing boxes labelled “Cyrene” during the church’s consecration. In that instant, a treasure trove of art made by some of the country’s most revered artistes and art educators was rediscovered, and at the same time, unmasking Cyrene’s role as the cradle of visual art in the country.
Cyrene Mission, famous for its localised art of Christian content which was developed first in the classrooms and then extended to decorate the chapel and schoolrooms so they became suitable to their function as a centre of worship in a rural African community, was the first art school in the country.
Scottish clergyman Canon Ned Paterson established the Mission School at Cyrene in 1939, just outside Bulawayo towards Plumtree.
He had studied art in London thanks to an army scholarship — and went on to include art in the curriculum at Cyrene from its inception.
While Cyrene is renowned for producing national icons such as the late nationalist leader and Zipra intelligence supremo Dumiso Dabengwa, it has given the arts a fair share of famous names, including the quadriplegic artiste Samuel Songo, Livingstone Sango, after whom the Livingstone-Sango Moyo Gallery at the National History Museum is named, and Kingsley Sambo, one of the first prominent modern artistes in Zimbabwe.
National Museum and Monuments of Zimbabwe
For former National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo director Voti Thebe, Cyrene Mission is the Mecca of the visual arts in Zimbabwe for producing these pioneering artistes.
“If you are a visual artist and you have never seen the original rock paintings (not from Books) and you have never been to Cyrene School to the splendour of the Cyrene chapel, you need to take a pilgrimage to go and visit those two places.
“Yes, they did shine as pioneers of this school and will continue to shine, with their names forever embedded in our memories because they were the pioneers, being some of the first art students of this institution when it first opened its doors in 1948. Opening doors, not only to learning in general but ‘art eyes’ to the people of its environs, as well as the country at large.”
Thebe said Cyrene deserved its reputation as the cradle of art in Zimbabwe, as the fire among pupils at Cyrene had ignited a similar passion in black youth elsewhere around the country.
“Canon Paterson started art development the Western way for the African child in 1940 at Cyrene Mission outside Bulawayo. Christianity was a way of art for those who wanted a place in that school.
Most students from Cyrene ended up being mentors of art, artists like Lazarus Khumalo, my mentor in sculpture, Sam Sango who later joined the Mzilikazi Art Centre as a teacher in wood carving. During one of our workshops with Lazarus Khumalo, he mentioned the late Bill Ainsle of the Art Foundation in Joburg that Bill was a firebrand in the visual arts during their term at Cyrene and a supporter of the black conscious movement/nationalists in the 1960’s.
“Bill was later deported to South Africa because of his stance in the liberating of the blacks. Bill and his fellow artist David Koloane of South Africa were the instigators of the artists’ workshops that have mushroomed in Southern Africa thereby creating a kind of networking of the visual artists. Unfortunately, Bill Ainsle died from a car accident when he was coming from the Pachipamwe workshop which was held at Cyrene in 1990.
From Cyrene the vision caught up with other mission schools in starting art lessons for the black child. Schools Serima Mission and Driefontein Mission which natured internationally renowned sculptors like Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Tapfuma Gutsa and others,” he said.
Thebe said the art from the students at Cyrene was perhaps the best illustration of the times they lived in, at a time when the lives and struggles of black people could not be caught and documented accurately on film. Exhibitions on the artwork from the Cyrene boys, titled The Stars Shine Bright, have been held around the country since the return of the pieces in the last two years.
Mzilikazi Arts Craft Centre
“The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the uprising of the nationalists’ movements. It was imperative that the artists of that period did paintings of the uprisings, which were popularly known as the Zhii Riots. Derived from the Ndebele war cry, when the Ndebele warriors were about to attack an enemy, the whole battalion would cry out Zhii Zhii Zhii at the same time beating their shields with knobkerries. The Zhii riots are synonymous with the nationalists’ uprisings of the 1960s. Therefore, the students at the art centre painted the scenes from the townships.
“Justin Mtungwazi captured the Zhii riots in one of his early paintings when he was still at Mzilikazi. Justin’s work shows school children rioting through Lobengula Primary School in Mzilikazi Township, with its distinctive “stepped” roof architecture. The drama of the children in their lilac and khaki uniforms running away from the school building with its smashed windows and irate caretaker in the background,” he said.
Now that their art was back on home soil, Thebe said it was important not to forget the role that these artistes had played in the development of the visual arts in Zimbabwe. In their field, they are heroes in their own right.
“Sadly, I never studied at Cyrene, but due to my love for art, I fell in love with this art school from the first day I set my eyes on it, firstly as an aspiring student after completing my primary education, continuing to love it and to be attracted to it because of art,” he said.