Images of a Revolution: Mural Art in Mozambique

by Albie Sachs

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Albert "Albie" Louis Sachs is a former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He was appointed by Nelson Mandela in 1994 and retired in October 2009. Justice Sachs gained international attention in 2005 as the author of the Court's holding in the case of Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie, in which the Court overthrew South Africa's statute defining marriage as between one man and one woman, finding this to be a violation of the Constitution's general mandate for equal protection for all and its specific mandate against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Reviews

[Mad Medico · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nicely presented collection of post-independence Mozambican mural art. The brief introduction explains the development of the art of mural-making from the spontaneous expressions of freedom immediately and hastily daubed upon Mozambique’s separation from Portugal in 1975, to the more carefully planned propagandistic collaborations between (formerly) dissident native artists, Chilean exiles fleeing from Pinochet and the revolutionary government. There was a successful attempt to develop the vernacular spontaneous style, mixing it with a post colonial symbology of agricultural and technical development, the importance of military struggle and prowess, an appreciation and reverence of the formerly enslaved and downtrodden populace, and the new ‘heroes’ of the nation in FRELIMO figures - to see the early formation of a new state’s mythology and arts culture so clearly represented is fascinating. The world themselves are rich in colour, with stunning rough textures, and I particularly like the ways in which the natural environment (in the form of plants and fronds) seems to merge with the pieces. As Sachs notes, the symbols aren’t vulgar or simplified - rather, the internationalist collaborative element to their production gives a distinctly cultured and cosmopolitan flavour to the works (while they are still recognisably African) and the artists eschew ‘easy’ answers, depicting continuous struggle and ambivalence rather than a manufactured, hollow joy or relief. Where the collection falls short, however, is in the fact that a key characteristic of murals is their size, scale and flow, all of which are severely restricted in the bounds of an A4 size book - it does well on small details (such as depicting texture and individual figures) but it is difficult to get a sense of the mural as a whole, and the page presentation can feel disjointed. It is also a major let down that the biggest and most significant mural (the Heroes Circle one) is not shown in full at all, especially frustrating seeing as the introduction notes the importance of the storytelling flow, and the fact that design elements appear horizontally and are cut off in the detailed view of each ‘panel’. Still worthwhile, though.