Lionel Davis

Last updated

Lionel Davis
Born1936 (age 82–83)
Cape Town, South Africa
NationalitySouth African
Alma mater BA Fine Art degree with the University of Cape Town in 1994
Known forArtist of the anti-apartheid movement

Lionel Davis is a visual artist, teacher, and public speaker from South Africa. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1936 in the infamous District Six neighborhood. He was a prominent figure in the anti-apartheid movement, and was incarcerated for seven years on Robben Island, [1] an infamous prison for political prisoners under the apartheid regime. It was here that Davis met Nelson Mandela. [2]

Cape Town Legislative capital of South Africa

Cape Town is a legislative capital of South Africa, colloquially named the Mother City. It is the legislative capital of South Africa and primate city of the Western Cape province. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality.

District Six human settlement

District Six is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. Over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policies of apartheid. The AAM changed its name to ACTSA: Action for Southern Africa in 1994, when South Africa achieved majority rule through free and fair elections, in which all races could vote.

Contents

Life

Growing up in District Six, Davis was exposed to the excessive police violence that characterized the racist apartheid regime. [3] In 2003, Davis shares with the Contemporary Africa Database that these experiences of abuse and injustice often involved his intervention. His personal disputes with police revealed to him a need to be more informed about society, so Davis sought out higher educational opportunities. Night school introduced Davis to the Non European Unity Movement (NEUM), African Peoples Democratic Union of South Africa (APDUSA), and the National Liberation Front, an APDUSA faction led by Neville Alexander.

Police brutality use of excessive force by a police officer

Police brutality is one of several forms of police misconduct which involves undue violence by police members. Widespread police brutality exists in many countries and territories, even those that prosecute it. Although illegal, it can be performed under the color of law.

Racism race or ethnic-based discrimination

Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against other people because they are of a different race or ethnicity. Modern variants of racism are often based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples. These views can take the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems in which different races are ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities.

Apartheid System of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (Namibia) from 1948 until the early 1990s

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (Namibia) from 1948 until the early 1990s. Apartheid was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on baasskap, which encouraged state repression of Black African, Coloured, and Asian South Africans for the benefit of the nation's minority white population. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day.

In 1964, Davis was arrested and sentenced to seven years on Robben Island for "conspiring to commit sabotage." Four years into his incarceration, Davis received a school-leaving Senior Certificate by completing his work via correspondence. After his release in 1971, he was put under house arrest for five years. Once his time was complete, 1978 and 1990 he worked as assistant organiser at the Community Arts Project (CAP) in Cape Town. At the Evangelical Art and Craft Centre at Rorke's Drift in 1980 he worked toward a Diploma in Fine Arts. His interest in art led him to complete a BA Fine Art degree with the University of Cape Town in 1994.

The term sentence in law refers to punishment that was actually ordered or could be ordered by a trial court in a criminal procedure. A sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process as well as the symbolic principal act connected to their function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine, and/or punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime. Those imprisoned for multiple crimes usually serve a concurrent sentence in which the period of imprisonment equals the length of the longest sentence where the sentences are all served together at the same time, while others serve a consecutive sentence in which the period of imprisonment equals the sum of all the sentences served sequentially, or one after the next. Additional sentences include intermediate, which allows an inmate to be free for about 8 hours a day for work purposes determinate, which is fixed on a number of days, months, or years; and indeterminate or bifurcated, which mandates the minimum period be served in an institutional setting such as a prison followed by street time period of parole, supervised release or probation until the total sentence is completed.

Robben Island Island in Table Bay, Western Cape, South Africa

Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island." Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km (2.1 mi) long north-south, and 1.9 km (1.2 mi) wide, with an area of 5.08 km2 (1.96 sq mi). It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. To date, three former inmates of Robben Island have gone on to become President of South Africa: Nelson Mandela, Kgalema Motlanthe, and Jacob Zuma.

Sabotage deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a saboteur. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions.

Davis has contributed to literary magazines, books on education, poetry anthologies and calendars. He produced cartoons for a children's magazine and taught screen-printing at CAP. He participated in the Triangle Workshop in New York City and the Thupelo Workshop in Johannesburg. In 1988 he was deeply involved in community-based children's education. He exhibited several times from 1981 to 1987, also in Gaborone, Botswana and Pine Plains, New York, United States. In 1995 he worked for the South African National Art Gallery as a part-time art educator. Lionel held his first solo exhibition at The Gill Allderman Gallery in April 2008.

In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, and/or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term "anthology" typically categorizes collections of shorter works such as short stories and short novels, by different authors, each featuring unrelated casts of characters and settings, and usually collected into a single volume for publication.

Screen printing printing technique

Screen printing is a printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh apertures with ink, and a reverse stroke then causes the screen to touch the substrate momentarily along a line of contact. This causes the ink to wet the substrate and be pulled out of the mesh apertures as the screen springs back after the blade has passed. One color is printed at a time, so several screens can be used to produce a multicoloured image or design.

Johannesburg Place in Gauteng, South Africa

Johannesburg, informally known as Jozi or Jo'burg, is the largest city in South Africa and one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. While Johannesburg is not one of South Africa's three capital cities, it is the seat of the Constitutional Court. The city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade.

After spending seven years imprisoned on Robben Island, Davis lived there with his family as an employee of the Robben Island Museum until 2006. He first worked as a tour guide and later moved to the Island Education Department as an Education Officer. His work includes developing education materials on prisoners and political imprisonment on the Island. On the Island he is better known as 'uncle' Lionel.

Political prisoner someone imprisoned because they have opposed or criticized the government responsible for their imprisonment

A political prisoner is someone imprisoned because they have opposed or criticized the government responsible for their imprisonment.

After leaving the island Lionel continues to do his art, participate in many community projects, gives talks on and as well as guides private tours of the Island

He is married to Barbara Davis and they have three children, Sandra, Basil and Leon.

Work

Exhibitions

TitleInstitution(s)Start DateEnd Date
Lionel Davis: Gathering Strands [4] [5] Iziko South African National Gallery; District Six Museum 22 June 20171 October 2017

See also

Related Research Articles

Ahmed Kathrada South African politician

Ahmed Mohamed Kathrada, sometimes known by the nickname "Kathy", was a South African politician, political prisoner and anti-apartheid activist.

Constitution Hill, Johannesburg building in South Africa

The Constitution Hill precinct is located at 11 Kotze Street in Braamfontein, Johannesburg near the western end of the suburb of Hillbrow. Constitution Hill is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Autshumato was a Strandloper leader who worked as an interpreter for the Europeans in present-day South Africa during the time of the establishment of the Dutch settlement on the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.

Iziko South African National Gallery Art Museum in Cape Town, South Africa

The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It became an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture Its collection consists largely of Dutch, French and British works from the 17th to the 19th century. This includes lithographs, etchings and some early 20th-century British paintings. Contemporary art work displayed in the gallery is selected from many of South Africa's communities and the gallery houses an authoritative collection of sculpture and beadwork.

Willie Bester is a South African artist known for his installations made of found objects.

Garth Erasmus is a South African artist who works in several media, including painting.

Buysile "Billy" Mandindi (1967–2005) was a black South African activist-artist who participated in a landmark protest in Cape Town in 1989, the so-called Purple Rain Protest. Later, still covered with the purple dye that riot police sprayed on protesters, Mandindi created a linocut celebrating the spirit of freedom.

Neville Alexander South African activist

Neville Edward Alexander was a proponent of a multilingual South Africa and a former revolutionary who spent ten years on Robben Island as a fellow-prisoner of Nelson Mandela.

The Minister of Arts and Culture is a Minister of the Cabinet of South Africa who is responsible for overseeing the Department of Arts and Culture. The portfolio was created on 29 April 2004 on the appointment of the second Cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki, when the Arts, Culture, Science and Technology portfolio was divided into two. As of 26 May 2014 the incumbent minister is Nathi Mthethwa and his deputy is Maggie Sotyu.

The Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) is a Trotskyist organisation formed in South Africa in 1943. It had links to the Workers Party of South Africa (WPSA), the first countrywide Trotskyist organisation, and was initially conceived as a broad protest front. It proposed a 10 Point Programme of radical reforms. It stressed non-racialism, meaning that it rejected race-based organising, unlike the main nationalist groups of the time, was highly critical of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress, and made a principle of non-collaboration with the apartheid regime and its allies

Nandipha Mntambo is a South African artist who has become famous for her sculptures, videos and photographs that focus on human female body and identity by using natural, organic materials.

Cameron Platter is a Cape Town and Durban, South Africa-based contemporary visual artist.

Billy Monk was a South African, known for his photographs of a Cape Town nightclub between 1967 and 1969, during apartheid. In 2012 a posthumous book was published, Billy Monk: Nightclub Photographs.

The Community Arts Project (CAP) was a community arts center in Cape Town, South Africa. Founded in 1977. it provided accommodation, facilities, and training to aspiring artists, particularly those marginalized by apartheid.

Edward Daniels is a South African former anti-apartheid activist who spent fifteen years as a political prisoner on Robben Island, during the years that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there.

Zelda Nolte

Zelda Nolte (1929–2003) was a South African British sculptor and woodblock printmaker.


Samuel Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist, Soweto uprising student leader and founder of South African Freedom Organisation (SAFO). He was jailed at various prisons including Robben Island in 1978, two years after the 1976 Soweto uprising. Samuel Sisulu was charged under the Terrorism Act. Reported in WIP 3. He was mentioned in the indictment of Paul Langa and found guilty of founding South African Freedom Organisation (SAFO), attempting to cripple the economy of the country by bombing the apartheid government, inciting persons to persuade taxi drivers not to transport workers to place of work, aid strikes, unlawfully aid students in their fight against Bantu education and was also found guilty of recruiting people for military training.

Isaac Bangani Tabata (1909-1990), also known as "I.B" or "Tabby", was a South African political activist, author and orator. A Marxist in the Trotskyist tradition, he was central to the Non-European Unity Movement from its inception in 1943, as well as in the African Peoples' Democratic Union of Southern Africa (APDUSA) formed 1961. He is notable for his innovative analyses, theoretical work and lifelong commitment to the movement. Tabata was married to Jane Gool, a major political activist.

Kagiso Patrick "Pat" Mautloa is an multi-media visual artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmangankato Helen Sebidi is a South African artist born in Marapyane (Skilpadfontein) near Hamanskraal, Pretoria who lives and works in Johannesburg. Sebidi's work has been represented in private and public collections, including at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington and New York the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, New York, and the World Bank. Her work has been recognised internationally and locally. In 1989 she won the Standard Bank Young Artist award, becoming the first black woman to win the award. In 2004, President Thabo Mbeki awarded her the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver – which is the highest honor given to those considered a "national treasure". In 2011, she was awarded the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Art, whilst in 2015 she received the Mbokodo Women's Award. In September 2018, Sebidi was honoured with one of the first solo presentations at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town – a retrospective entitled Batlhaping Ba Re.

References

  1. ↑ "Lionel Davis". www.capetown.at. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  2. ↑ Eggart, Elise (2008). "Lionel Davis" . Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  3. ↑ "Lionel Davis". www.capetown.at. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  4. ↑ "Event View – Calendar – Iziko Museums". www.iziko.org.za. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  5. ↑ "Gathering Strands with Lionel Davis – News – Iziko Museums". www.iziko.org.za. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.