Kiure Msangi (1937- ) of Tanzania aggressively addresses political inequities and tragedies
through the use of traditional symbols. Now teaching at Kenyatta University, Msangi studied at
Makerere University in Uganda and also in California. A strong humanist, he is a master at
expressing evil and anguish. As Jean Kennedy states in New Currents Ancient Rivers -
Contemporary African Artists in a Generation of change, “……color and form plumb the depths of
physical feeling.” Family Group, at first glance depicts the archetype unit, mother, father and
three children, unified by an embrace.
However, looking at their faces, we see scowls and
mask-like attributes; fear and distrust now pervade the composition. Bastion of Apartheid is an
even more powerful statement as we see people tortured and maimed by the white authorities while
the skeletal priest and his brethren, also white, turn their heads in prayer. Terror grips the
black South Africans.
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