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Mnyele, Thami, 1948-1985


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    • Mnyele, Thamsanqa Harry, 1948-1985

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      • Sources

        • found: Wylie, Diana. Art and revolution, 2008:CIP t.p. (Thami Mnyele) galley (b. Dec. 10, 1948; d. June 14, 1985)
        • found: SANB correspondence with author, Apr. 14, 1976(full name: Mnyele, Thamsanqa Harry; nickname: Thami; b. Dec. 10, 1948)
        • found: Dictionary of African Biography, accessed February 26, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Mnyele, Thami; Thamsanqa Harry Mnyele; political activist, graphic designer; born 10 December, 1948 in Johannesburg, South Africa; studied at the Nchaupe II Memorial College; studied art at Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, Rorke's Drift, Natal (1973); took art classes, Johannesburg Art Foundation (1970s); graphic artist at the South African Committee on Higher Education (1970s); helped found Mihloti ("tears") Black Theatre (1971); entered Standard Bank art competition and received "high commendation" (1976); exiled to Botswana (1979); published newsletter, made political posters, put on plays, Medu Art Ensemble, Botswana (1979-1985); secretly joined African National Congress, Botswana and went to Caxito, Angola to train as guerrilla (1983); was killed with other African National Congress members; Dutch government established the Thami Mnyele Foundation to provide fellowships for African artists in Amsterdam (1990), was reburied with public honor in Tembisa (2004), Johannesburg Art Gallery held retrospective show entitled Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble (2008-2009); died 14 June, 1985 in Gaborone, Botswana)
        • found: SAHO, South African History Online, viewed January 10, 2024(Thamsanqa "Thami" Mnyele; Thami Mnyele, born in Alexandra, near Johannesburg; attended boarding school in Pretoria, began to draw at age 14; forced to leave school in his last year of Matric due to lack of funds; joined Mhloti Black Theatre in 1971; decided by 1972 that his personal direction lay with visual arts, and secured a grant to the ELC Art Centre in Rorkes Drift, Natal, where he received one year of formal art training, then left to help his mother keep her house; worked as an illustrator for SACHED Trust for 7 years; held an art exhibition in June 1976 with Fikgile and Ben Arnold at the Dube YWCA, popular, though not acknowledged in the Johannesburg art world or in the press; forced into exile in Botswana in 1979, where he became a leading figure within Medu Art Ensemble, organising cultural workers, and made and exhibited graphics, drawings, and fine arts; also an ANC cadre, participated in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC's military wing; in the early 1980s he trained in MK camps in Angola and later in Lusaka; worked with ANC printers designing posters, mastheads, and stickers under the ANC's name; chaired the Gaborone Culture and Resistance Festival in 1982 and gave the keynote address; was a spokesperson for South Africa's visual artists at the follow-up conference in Amsterdam in 1983; shot dead on June 14, 1985 outside his home in Gaborone by South African Defence Force (SADF) soldiers, the day before he planned to move to Lusaka; the SADF took the portfolio of his packed works, displayed it a week later on SABC television as evidence of Thami's 'terrorist' activities; those works have never been recovered) - https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/thamsanqa-thami-mnyele

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      • Change Notes

        • 2007-12-14: new
        • 2025-01-12: revised

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