In Memoriam: Mamatlakeng Maggie Makhoana
by Colin Richards
(January 7, 1944 - July 25, 2004)
It is with great sadness and a deep sense of loss that the arts community heard that Maggie Makhoana had passed away.
Maggie was born on the January 7, 1944 in Kliptown. She grew up in Sophiatown in Johannesburg before being forcibly removed to Soweto. Her schooling was at the Maseru Community High School in Lesotho. In 1978 she completed a four-year art course at the Johannesburg Art Foundation, and between 1987 and 1989 she completed the Khula Udweba art teacher training course held under the auspices of the African Institute of Art based at Funda, Soweto.
Maggie was a stalwart of the community artworld. She started voluntary work with children at the Orlando Childrens' Home in Soweto and taught young people art at the Federated Union of Black Artists in Johannesburg from the mid-seventies. Unassuming but determined in her special way, Maggie worked tirelessly for the cause of creativity in difficult environments.
Of all the participants in early progressive art projects in the 1980s, Maggie was one of the most active and committed to developing art amongst the ordinary folk of Soweto. She worked all over - Mofolo, White City, Zola, Orlando, Pefeni, Johannesburg city - often in cramped spaces and with minimal art materials. She could actually work anywhere with her children, finding imaginative resources in the most unpromising environments. In her sessions almost nothing was exempt as creative material - bottle tops, cigarette butts, used matches, tar-covered stones, chicken bones, sand, plastic packets and throwaway paper bags.
Maggie was a local pioneer in recognising the link between health and creativity. In 1984 she established her project 'Sedibeng sa Limpho' at Dube Chapel, at the Bethany Girls' Home in Phomolong, and at the Homeless Women Project in Wilgespruit. She also began art sessions at Othandweni Children�s home in Mofolo South, and I was privileged to become part of this work.
In an interview in 1995, Maggie spoke of being
'... committed to exposing our children to our cultural heritage, building their self-confidence and enabling them to experience the satisfaction of expressing themselves through creativity.'
Maggie and I met in 1987, just before I went abroad to study art therapy at the University of London. On my return we started working together in earnest, and eventually established The Mokhele Art Therapy and Education Project. This project was named in memory of Thanki Mokhele, a beloved fellow artist and teacher who died tragically in an accident in 1990.
In 1991 Maggie was selected to attend the Zabalaza Art Festival in London, and participated in a mural project at London's Institute of Contemporary Art. Later, in 1995, Maggie and I went to Birmingham, England, to work on an exhibition entitled 'Siyawela'.
Here she held intensive and hugely successful art workshops with the children of that city which culminated in an exhibition of the work of children from Soweto and Birmingham. It was also in Birmingham that the Northmoor Trust heard about MATEP, and awarded us generous funding for an art therapy building in Soweto.
Maggie dreamed of starting the first art therapy service in Soweto, and to become the first trained black art therapist in South Africa. To this end she read avidly and attended experiential art therapy courses run by Hayley Berman here in Johannesburg. The building which now stands alongside the Cheshire home bears witness to her dream. Designed with flair and generosity by well-known architect Kate Otten, it is a remarkable structure.
Kate understood what Maggie was trying to achieve. The first of its kind, this unique studio complex is in sympathy with its surrounds and offers a safe, non-hierarchical space for individual and group art work. The building also expresses the love Maggie had for her children and community.
Maggie was in some ways an unsung heroine, working invisibly and patiently at tasks which could never be complete. But she did receive public recognition for her work. One honour, for example, was being selected as a patron by Johannesburg Child Welfare for her contribution to '... healing children in the Soweto, Johannesburg area'. She was also an active member of arts and civic organisations. But whatever her public work, Maggie was loved and respected by of all of us privileged enough to work closely with her.
Maggie suffered a serious heart condition most her adult life. Of late her heart seems to have failed her. She was always something of a medical miracle, and perhaps because she was so unassuming about this, those of us around her imagined she would always survive.
Maggie drew for pleasure until the end of her days. She returned over and over again to one image. This image was of a rock in a township park, a rock she said had seen everything, a rock with spirit, a rock which was still obstinately there through thick and thin, inspiring and challenging the world around. Maggie was much like this rock.
It is difficult to express the deep sense of loss that comes with the news of Maggie's passing. It is difficult to imagine we will never see her again in this life. Accompanying an article Hazel Friedman wrote for the Weekly Mail & Guardian (February 1995), is a picture of Maggie. This picture is how I imagine Maggie might want to be remembered: at work, concentrating, smiling, surrounded by children and art materials of every sort, the sun on her face. OusMaki leaves the world in which she lived a better place. We will miss her sorely.
Colin Richards is an artist and academic based in Johannesburg.
