Artist, poet, and revered national hero Malangatana Ngwenya (1936–2011) was a pioneer of modern art in Africa. Born in Mozambique, in southeast Africa, Malangatana depicted vivid allegorical scenes that draw from local religious practices, his cultural background, and life under colonial rule. This exhibition presented a selection of the artist’s early paintings and drawings, made between 1959 and 1975. During this period Malangatana embarked on bold formal experiments that coalesced into a signature style characterized by dense compositions of human, animal, and monstrous figures.

Malangatana’s early career coincided with Mozambique’s liberation struggle, in particular the armed resistance against the Portuguese in 1964, which was spearheaded by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO). A Portuguese colony until 1975, Mozambique was among the last countries on the African continent to gain independence. Malangatana explored the rapidly changing world around him and addressed the country’s social and political context in his paintings and drawings. These works exemplify the confluence of artistic innovation and political liberation that has shaped the history of modern art in Africa during the second half of the twentieth century.

A Hybrid Education

Growing up in the village of Matalana, Malangatana encountered local art and craft traditions such as pottery, basketry, and painting before moving to Mozambique’s capital, Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), to find work. Racial and social barriers of the colonial system limited black Mozambicans’ access to formal art education. However, colonial policies promoting integration through assimilation—pressuring the local black population to adopt the language, religion, and values of the Portuguese—made art classes available to Malangatana at the Industrial School as well as the Art Center of the Colony of Mozambique in the late 1950s.

At the Art Center, Malangatana encountered European styles of painting and met Portuguese architect Amâncio d’Alpoim Miranda “Pancho” Guedes, who became a significant mentor and patron. Guedes encouraged him to leave the Art Center in order to avoid, in Malangatana’s words, “pollution” by a formal education anchored in European painting traditions. Guedes gave Malangatana studio space and a salary, and commissioned a large number of paintings in the years prior to the artist’s first solo exhibition in 1961.

Mythology and Religion

Many of Malangatana’s works from the late 1950s to the early 1970s refer to the artist’s Mozambican roots, specifically his Ronga cultural background. The paintings in this section feature Ronga folklore, mythology, and healing rituals. Frequently the artist included Catholic symbols, signs of the pervasive Portuguese influence in Mozambique. Malangatana’s exaggerated depictions of Ronga culture verge on the satirical, and his references to Christianity are similarly unflattering, suggesting a critique of Portuguese colonial rule.

Malangatana’s work demonstrates how he carefully balanced all aspects of life in Mozambique, from colonial influences and indigenous customs and practices to the struggle for independence. These experiences—as well as his art education and the structures of patronage he was embedded in—were layered and complex, subverting the clichéd notion of the self-taught African artist who, unspoiled by foreign influences, finds inspiration in “primitive” practices and beliefs, an idea that persists in the art history and reception of modern African art.

Beyond Painting and Drawing

Malangatana was also active as an educator, muralist, sculptor, and writer. He frequently published in journals and corresponded extensively with peers and friends all over the world. In addition, he wrote poetry, at times to accompany his paintings. Malangatana drew from personal aspects of his life in his poems, some of which were presented in an issue of the African literary journal Black Orpheus.

In 1995 Malangatana started building a cultural center in his birth village of Matalana to host art education and community events. The center’s architecture combines the geometric logic and industrial materials of Bauhaus design—inspired by the work of Malangatana’s friend and patron Pancho Guedes, a renowned modern architect—with elements such as circular windows, teeth, grids, and figurative wall reliefs (fig. 1). The grid design of this exhibition borrowed from the center’s architecture (fig. 2).

Prison Drawings 

In 1965–66 the International and State Defense Police (PIDE) imprisoned Malangatana for 18 months because of his suspected involvement with the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO). While incarcerated, the artist began a series of drawings that he continued to work on after his release. The works capture the harsh conditions of life in Machava Central Prison through striking realism interrupted by fantasy scenes and dreams, their tension amplified by distorted bodies and monstrous figures.

In 1961 mentor and patron Pancho Guedes introduced Malangatana to Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, the founding president of the movement FRELIMO. Malangatana hoped to go abroad for international opportunities and exposure, but Mondlane encouraged him to stay in Mozambique and use art to contribute to the anti-colonial struggle. The artist’s growing political awareness during the 1960s is apparent in the increasingly political tone of his work. He also expressed dissent by withdrawing from the 1964 exhibition Artists in Mozambique to protest Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment and by refusing to represent Portugal at the 1965 São Paulo Art Biennial.

Artist of the Revolution 

After receiving a yearlong scholarship in 1971 from the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Malangatana explored new media and pursued exhibition opportunities across Europe—before returning permanently to Mozambique in 1974. There he continued experimenting in his art by elongating limbs, introducing opaque colors, and moving further into abstraction with thick outlines and flattened compositions. The titles of his works during this period, such as The Cry for Freedom and Remember Those Who Entered Bleeding?, reflect the focus on the war for independence and the sense of urgency Mozambicans felt at the time: in 1974 a ceasefire ended the war, followed by ten months of negotiations and the country’s independence on June 25, 1975.

After independence Malangatana was embraced as an artist of the revolution, and his work, including state-funded murals, was recognized as an exemplar of Mozambican culture. In addition to holding multiple roles within the newly formed government, he was appointed ambassador of peace during Mozambique’s civil war (1977–92) and UNESCO Artist for Peace in 1997. He was also instrumental in establishing Mozambique’s National Museum of Art in Maputo. Malangatana continued working as a civic leader, educator, poet, and, foremost, as an artist until his death in 2011.