Artists are inspired by different things. These artists are inspired by African heritage. They incorporate traditional music and indigenous patterns in their paintings and fashion. Cameroonian painter Angu Walters explores how music inspires him in his painting. Knitwear fashion designer Laduma Ngxokolo is featured for drawing his inspiration from the Xhosa traditional practice of ulwaluko by making clothing for amakrwala, new men who have undergone initiation into manhood.
Angu Walters, Cameroon
Angu Walters was born in Nsongwa in the North West Province of Cameroon. He is a painter and musician who is quite fond of traditional African music. The Cameroonian musical genre Makossa began as street music characterised by a syncretic rhythm and dance while the musical genre Bikutsi is based on traditional rhythms which have been adapted to the guitar over the years. Walters adapts a bit of both in his paintings.
When he was a young boy, he developed an interest in painting by mixing and applying ink from various pen colors on shredded cardboard that was hung on the walls of his mother’s living room. His mother asked renowned Cameroonian-American artist Spee to see what the youngster was creating with the things he could find around him. The artist invited him to his studio which provided him the opportunity to hone his craft.
Walter’s paintings mainly confront themes of music and family. This is shown through instruments such as the kora, mvet, and senza which feature frequently in his paintings. He also has other paintings reflecting ideal village living. Walter has been a part of the Umbria Jazz exhibition at the Rocca Paolina in Perugia, Italy as well as the Permanent Exhibit at the Spree Art Gallery in Bamenda, Cameroon. As a solo artist he has shown at the Annie Kadji Art Gallery in Duala, Cameroon and at the Left of Centre Art Gallery in Las Vegas, the United States.
Laduma Ngxokolo, South Africa
Laduma Ngxokolo uses inspiration from his Xhosa tradition to approach the designs under his brand MAXHOSA BY LADUMA. Xhosa people in South Africa have a rite of passage ceremony for young boys transitioning into manhood called ulwaluko. After this ceremony these new men wear new, distinguished, formal clothing for months and this is what inspired Ngxokolo to start his range. Being a Xhosa man from South Africa who also went through ulwaluko, he found this transition into manhood a sacred time and felt it important to be in stylish comfortable attire. He also felt he needed to celebrate traditional Xhosa aesthetics.
MAXHOSA has captured the hearts of many fashion lovers and media from South Africa, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Oslo, Berlin and New York. In 2021 the brand won the African Luxury Brand Award as well as a Vogue award. The two artists above have a connection to heritage which they have inherited from their ancestors and their surroundings. This makes them one with where they come from and where they find themselves as artists.
