Art

Artists of Platfontein: Freciano Ndala 

2010-02-12 15:23:00

Artists of Platfontein: Freciano Ndala

Freciano Ndala was born in the late 1940’s in Cuando, Angola. He received his traditional education form his father and the rest of his family, who made a living as hunter gatherers in the natural environment of Angola. He worked in a coffee plantation for a few years as a young man, before returning home to work as hunter. He was employed as a tracker and soldier by the South African Defence Force until the late 1980’s when he fled to make a living from selling bows, arrows and other traditional crafts in Namibia.

“I feel good when I can paint and draw, as it is my work that I learnt at the beginning of my life. This art comes from there. At that time, we drew on animal skins as we did not have a use for paper.”

“While I am alive, my work is my life. When I am dead, work means nothing. My work starts from dreams. When I was a hunter, if I should go into the bush to find an animal, I might find nothing and then I would ask, why is the creator not looking after me? But if, the night before, I asked for the hunt, I would dream and dream about the animal I want to hunt. Then early the next day, I would get up and find the spoor from my dream on the ground.”

“After shooting the animal with my poison arrow, I used to sleep while the animal died. I would dream again. Then I would go to fetch the meat and share it with my family. Now, when I want to draw or paint, I would lie down and dream about the image. The next morning, I would get up and draw the image in the sand, to see if it is what I saw in my dream.”

“The war started in Angola with the black people. They made slaves out of us. They wanted us to hunt animals for them. The Portuguese came to us and said they wanted to protect their families from the black people. They asked for our help. But then we discovered that the Portuguese army did not want to give us money and enough food. They started beating us up when we did not want to fight with them. There was war everywhere in Angola and the bush was not safe anymore. We fled to Namibia and became soldiers there with the South African army. We got money and food, but they also wanted to make slaves of us. I left them long before we came to South Africa.”

Extracts from:
My Eland’s Heart, a collection of stories and art, from !Xun and Khwe San Art and Culture Project by Marlene Sullivan Winberg was published by David Philip Publishers in Cape Town in 2001.

Anyone who is interested in buying the work of these, and other, artists should contact Marlene on: marlene.winberg@absamail.co.za

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