Owen Maseko: an artist who represents the history of Zimbabwe from its formation up until the turmoil it faces today.
Southern Rhodesia, the nation we today call Zimbabwe, was colonially subjugated after many late 19th Century wars in 1923. From the time of its formation up until the present, the nation has gone through three eras. Each has shaped Zimbabwe, both socially and politically, into what it is today.
When the nation was first colonized by the British it was called Southern-Rhodesia and was ruled, governed and controlled by The Crown. As years went on the colony began to drift away from British rule, and in 1965 the power was turned over to a minority group of British white settlers who then ran the government. This was the second era of rule. The minority white rulers changed the name of the nation from Southern Rhodesia to Rhodesia. From the time they came into office until they were pushed out, nationalist groups fought against them. For years they governed the nation, but eventually they were pushed out after the Rhodesian Bush War (which is also known as the Zimbabwe War of Liberation).
There were two groups of Africans that lived on the territory when Southern Rhodesia was colonized: the Shona People and the Ndebele people. Two nations that had nothing to do with each other upon colonization were forced into one nation. When the War of Liberation began, even with their differences, they agreed that foreigners should not be ruling or governing their home; the white rule needed to end. The only way to gain independence, however, was to go to fight. The Rhodesian Bush War began in 1964 while the minority white rulers were coming to power. Throughout the time that the territory was under white rule, the three groups – the Shona, Ndebele and British settlers – were fighting. Two nationalist parties formed: The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). The ZANU demographic was predominantly Shona People, and the ZAPU was primarily composed of Ndebele people. The Shona party and the Nedeble party resisted each other, but primarily they fought the British settlers that were in power. Eventually in 1980, the ZANU overthrew the government and a man named Robery Mugabe came to power. This was the third era of rule in Zimbabwe.
Winning the Rhodesian Bush War brought the Shona people into political control. The Ndebele people, who were the minority in the nation, did not like this. Both the Shona and Ndebele were native to the land and wanted to govern it, but being the minority, the Ndebele lost power due to numbers. They publicly opposed Mugabe and his government because the Shona refused to recognize their native language and cultural differences. Without surprise, Mugabe did not approve of their opposition and so he wanted them silent.
Within only three years of ruling, Mugabe decided the Ndebele people needed to go. Mugabe ordered The Gukurahundi: a series of massacres of Ndebele people that were carried out by Zimbabwe’s official army. The Fifth Brigade was a North Korean trained unit that specialized in traveling by foot from town to town to kill in surprise attacks. The brigade was ordered by Mugabe to eliminate the Ndebele people. The brigade not only killed entire villages and towns, but before executing they would raid, pillage, rape and torture their victims. These massacres took place between 1983 and 1987 and at least 20,000, but possibly as many as 40,000 innocent civilian Ndebele people were killed. The Gukurahundi was never publicly recognized by Mugabe’s government and the closest thing to an apology came many years later when he was publicly confronted about the event. He admitted it was “a moment of madness” but refused to apologize.
Owen Maseko is the artist I will be talking about in this paper. Owen was born in 1974 in Bulawayo, the second-largest city in Zimbabwe. He is a 47-year-old artist who studied many forms of media at the Mzilikazi Arts and Crafts Center. He has worked with almost any medium you could think of but mainly draws, paints and creates installations. His passion for art has been growing since his childhood, but it wasn’t until recently that his art began to have political reflections.
Owen Maseko is most known for an exhibition he created called Sibathonrisele. This exhibition is a direct reflection, response and commentary on the Gukurahundi Massacres that his government refused to recognize. The exhibition consists of three installations and twelve paintings, each of which were done in only black and red. Maseko tells us that the red represents the blood that was shed during the killings, and that the black represents the people.
The title, Sibathontisele, translates to “Let’s Drip on them” and it holds a very powerful meaning. During the Gukurahundi, The Fifth Brigade used a torture tactic on their victims where they would drip hot plastic onto their bodies. Sometimes they would leave them alive to suffer the irreversible burns and trauma, and others times they would torture with this and then kill, leaving this as many people’s last memory. Naming his piece after this tactic was a way of reclaiming the humanity of the Ndebele people and taking back the humiliation that they faced. Maseko did not want this massacre to define the Ndebele people any longer.
Here are some of the pieces included in the exhibition:
Maseko called this painting “Ongowane ’Zibomvu” which translates to “The Red Berets.” “The Fifth brigade used to wear all these red berets, so it is one of those memories that Ndebele People remember so well.”
This is one of the three installations that are in Maseko’s exhibition. This installation shows the torture tactic that I talked about earlier that was used by the Fifth Brigade. As mentioned above, people were hung from their feet and hot rubber was dripped and poured over their bodies. (Later I will talk about how Maseko’s exhibition was closed by the government, but for now, notice: the background of this installation is covered in newspaper to block the window from the street).
This painting is called “Babylon Songs” and the title is in English on purpose. It is a tragic painting that reflects the way that Ndebele civilians, mostly those in rural areas, were forced to sing songs in the language of the Shona people before being killed. These people spoke their native Ndebele language, and as a means of humiliation, they were forced to sing songs of the Shona people.
There are many more paintings and two more installations that are a part of the exhibition. {To see the rest look up “Owen Maseko – Painting a Massacre” on YouTube}.
Maseko was never a political artist, rather a man who created art that was inspired by his feelings. “I don’t wake up every day and choose to be political the way people think I do. I am a realistic person who is affected by everything that is happening around me,” Maseko explained in an interview. In fact, it wasn’t until 2009, when a task force was put together to address atrocities in Zimbabwe’s history, that Maseko’s art began to get political. The task force was put together by Mugabe’s government to investigate tragedies and then publicly acknowledge and apologize for them. Many events were addressed, but not the Gukurahundi. The lack of recognition the Gukurahundi got “showed the government’s lack of commitment to resolving sensitive issues,” Maseko said. He added that “addressing that could have created space for peace and democracy” in the nation. After this Maseko decided that if the government wasn’t going to address the pain and suffering that the Ndebele faced, he would.
In 2010, Maseko’s exhibition opened in Zimbabwe. It was a creation he had spent years working on, and within 48 hours of its opening, it was banned from public viewing by the government. Mugabe quite literally put it under lock and key; the windows were covered up from the inside and chains were put around every entrance. Maseko was arrested a little while later. He was detained for five nights and six days facing two felonies. The first charge was because his artwork ‘undermined’ authority and ‘insulted’ president Mugabe. His second charge was for the inscriptions on his artwork. The government said that the words in the exhibit were “insulting and provocative,” and that his art insulted or caused offense to people of a particular race, tribe, color or religion. Each of these charges merited a sentence of 12 months in prison.
A few months later these charges were dropped for a more serious one. Maseko, along with the director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, were both charged with “publicizing and communicating false statements with intent to incite violence.” This was a charge that faced 20 years in prison. The allegations, which were false for both the director and Maseko, were dropped due to good lawyers. These charges were placed on them in efforts to silence the educational and political awareness both were providing to Zimbabwe’s citizens. The country was censoring the art and expression of not only Maseko and the work in the gallery, but also of so many artists in the country.
Maseko’s exhibition was the first piece of public art that brought the government’s attention to the power art and expression can hold. The government realized that Maseko’s installation directly represented an event in their history that they did not want to even acknowledge. This realization led them to review their censorship act. They did not revise the act, but rather gutted it and wrote a new one. This censorship act, that is not in place today, states that every artist in Zimbabwe must have their work reviewed by a governmental board and be approved before being displayed anywhere in the country.
Owen Maseko never intended to become a human rights activist. He was just a guy that loved art and expressed himself through it. He had never before labeled his art as political, but when those around him began to, he started to realize its importance. When Maseko realized that “human rights, and art in Zimbabwe are closely linked” he knew that he needed to fight for expressive freedom. For Maseko, his art speaks so much louder than his words. In an interview he declared, “For as long as necessary, art is an expression of my human rights and art must demand human rights.” Maseko only wants to rebuild his nation and work towards building his society back up, righting wrongs, building community and spreading peace. He says that “We understand all of history, we understand everything. But, the responsibility that we have is that we need to sort our lives out as we go along … Let’s make that change for ourselves.” He knows that when people begin to make that change for themselves, his whole nation will be transformed.
