Sunday, December 24, 2006

Artist Sipho Ndebele



"We were at the political forefront, showing how black people were living. While the media was censored, we were doing it in our own sweet way"
says Sipho Ndebele from an article in The Star newspaper. Many art works made in South Africa during Apartheid were stolen by foreigners, or artists were conned - by foreigners, and ironically the township artists continued to starve, while the rest of the world got to feel all sorry for South Africa and march around Trafalger Square, for example, even though South Africa didnt have TV so no one knew they were marching around, with police protection. They could have come to South Africa and actually done something. And now South Africa is trying to get the art back, to where it belongs, to be with it's history, rather than languishing overseas where it shouldn't be, especially as they never paid for it in the first place even though they claimed to be anti-apartheid. The artists are still mostly starving.