For Love of a Nation or For Want of Recognition: The Biography of Wilson Ngoni; A Batswana Artist’s Struggle for Voice, Survival, and Acceptance

Drew A. Thompson

One morning while painting in his Gaborone studio, Batswana artist Wilson Ngoni, proudly stated, “I am an artist. My paintings are my voice; they are the voice of Botswana.” He continued, “My job is to open [Botswana’s] eyes to HIV/AIDS and the world. I want to see no one ashamed.” For Wilson, his Surrealist canvas of a condom, rope, and bread tilted “The Necessities of Life” and his realistic watercolor depictions of animals and traditional dancers are not only a part of his visions of what tomorrow should become (i.e., an end to HIV/AIDS and ethnic conflict), but they are also his tools for survival.

“Artists [here in Botswana] paint to sell; they can’t survive otherwise,” he remarked. “My brothers can’t realize the importance of my paintings, but they feed from them.” The death of his mother from HIV/AIDS and Botswana’s current struggles are inspirations for his work. But, desires for engaging visual expression are put aside when he thinks about the other five siblings he supports. No longer is his paintbrush able to creatively move about the canvas. Rather, profitable market demands force him to rapidly reproduce foreign-valued scenes of wildlife and landscapes. Wilson’s imagination and messages of hope are lost to real-life concerns for money for bread, housing, and school fees.

In spite of his aspirations for change, Wilson, who only sells 25 paintings per year mostly to foreign visitors and government officials, frequently expressed his ambition for public recognition. “How many people have heard of me? Just a few?,” he said. “I want a voice, a chance to get people to listen.” This much-desired voice he believes comes with increased sales. Societal demands not only drive his works’ subjects, but they also impact his ambitions. In turn, his works, specifically their wide-ranging subjects and diverse styles, reflect a multi-faceted struggle, a struggle for voice, survival, and acceptance. For the historian of Africa, Wilson’s works do not simply have aesthetic value. When viewed in relation to his life story and societal demands, they represent “African modernity,” an ongoing process for cultural definition and acceptance.

The first aim of this paper is to highlight the African artist’s struggle for recognition of self and work. I will first provide a sketch of Wilson’s life and inspirations, which serves as a foundation for a visual analysis of his works. Together, his biography and this visual analysis will provide insight into the ambitions he has for himself and his works. Information for this section will come from extensive interviews with Wilson. Having established the connection between the artist and his work, it is critical to place both entities in the context of the larger world they operate. To do this, I will then study Wilson and his works in relation to societal expectations. Information acquired from archival work at Botswana’s national archives, interviews with Botswana-based artists and gallery owners, and survey responses from students at Molepole College of Education on the function of the visual arts in Botswana will be used in this analysis. This section will specifically highlight the value African and Western societies place on the visual artists and arts. A visual analysis of Wilson’s work with respect to his personal history and societal pressures will present this ongoing exchange that is taking place internally within the artist and between him and society about African modernity. It will emphasize how both the artist and local and global societies define “African modernity” and the disconnect that exists between these definitions. I am specifically interested in understanding what the perceived role of “Africa” and “the African” is in each concept of modernity.

This paper’s second objective is to present a methodological framework for future study of the African visual artists and arts. The artist and his visual representations signify a continual call for the incorporation of such entities and perspectives in an isolated Western-institutionalized dialogue on Africa’s post-colonial state. I believe this paper will show that it is critical to look beyond the visual language of the work itself to the artist’s life and the circumstances under which he works. This is important because the produced art form is a product of these two environments and reflective of a larger struggle for recognition and acceptance.