On 8 June 2017 at 17:30 the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum will be closing the exhibition Remembering the SS Mendi with the launch of a new collection of poems on the Mendi tragedy titled The Cold Sea: Mendi Poems composed by local school learners and members of Nelson Mandela Bay community. The contributors to this publication participated in poetry workshops facilitated by Brian Walter and assisted by Olwethu Mxoli and Leonie Williams. Selected poems will be performed on the night and will be accompanied by a recital of the famous hymn Ama-Gora e-Mendi written by S.E.K Mqayi and composed by A.M. Jonas.
Poetry has been central to the story of the SS Mendi. Poet S.E.K Mqhayi who was the Imbongi ye Sizwe (National Bard) of the Xhosa people at the time of the First World War felt deeply about the disaster as he had played a formative role in the recruitment campaign through a poem that he wrote calling men to arms titled, The Black Army. In response to the tragedy S.E.K Mqhayi wrote UKUTSHONA KUKAMEND (The sinking of the Mendi) which kept the memory of this event alive in the oral narrative of the Xhosa communities in the Eastern Cape during the Apartheid years when black historical events were written out of the history books.
Hillary Graham was initially inspired to make an artwork about this tragic event when he attended the Xhosa Art and literature festival held at Fort Hare University in 1987. At this festival he encountered S.E.K. Mqhayi’s work and was inspired to create a visual response to Mqhayi’s powerful words.
Keeping the spirit of poetry alive, Brian Walter along with poets Cathal Lagan and Basil Somhlahlo collaborated with Hillary Graham in 1994 to produce a book of poetry titled Mendi: Poems on the Sinking of the Mendi. This book of poems was produced when Graham’s exhibition was first shown in Nelson Mandela bay in 1994. The publication has been reprinted and is available for purchase at the Art Museum.
The exhibition Remembering the SS Mendi, reimagines the tragic event in vast series of tableaus depicting the brave men of 5th Battalion the South African Native Labour Corps who died in this nautical disaster. The Mendi installation was produced by Graham over a five year period from 1987 and was intended as a pictorial memorial to the men who died in the SS Mendi tragedy. The exhibition was first exhibited in 1993 at the National Art’s Festival held in Grahamstown. The Art Museum purchased the exhibition for the collection in 1995.
Remembering the tragic loss of life when the SS Mendi sank has become a rallying point in Post-Apartheid South Africa to recover the lost history of black soldiers and the role these men played in World War One. Of the many South Africans soldiers who perished on this night, the majority were black South African troops heading for the front lines of the First World War in supportive positions.
To complement the closing event the Friends of the Art Museum have organised for Hillary Graham to conduct a walkabout of his exhibition on 8 June at 15:00.
The Friends of the Art Museum have also asked Hillary Graham to conduct a drawing workshop on 10 June at the Harbour from 9:00 – 11:00. Please contact us for more details and to book you place.
Alan Straton
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