"Coloureds are Drunkards !"

Charles Davidson Bell born 22 October 1813 died  7 April 1882 was a surveyor general in the Cape Colony as well as an artist and designer of Cape metals, stamps, logos and emblems. Charles was educated in Saint Andrew University, left Scotland and sailed to South Africa, landed at Cape of Good Hope in 1830, explored South Africa until 1834.

 Works of Charles D. Bell

Charles Davidson Bells works include the design of the coat of arms for the South African College now University of Cape Town and the three arches badge for the South African Mutual assurance society of  which he was a chairman of, between both emblems which are still in use and may well be the oldest academic arms and corporate logos in South Africa. 




Charles D. Bells impact in the Dutch-Afikaner community by copying and preserving old Dutch coat of arms from memorials, seals and stained glass windows and other artifacts. He designed a silver gallantry medal for Cape Governor Sir Henry Smith, rectangular stamps which remained in use until 1902 and other depictions of Africans and Europeans in the interior of Southern African.




Alcohol and Art: Dehumanised

In a published essay by Russel Vilijoen of the University  of South Africa / Unisa titled "alcohol and art" the depiction of the Khoikhoi as drunkards, addicts, and scandalous characters. Charles D. Bell paintings perpetuated the image of laziness, drunkenness and sexual nature of Coloured/Khoikhoi people. 




"Bell masterfully portrays, by virtue of their addiction to strong liquor, that they were psychologically serving another master, namely alcohol."

In an article by Lee Ndaba published in 25 December 2018 in medium: by the 1700s having been dispossessed the Khoikhoi of their land the white settlers paid them in food, old clothing and alcohol. The liquor was said to be labelled hot ten tots hence why Khoikhoi people were nicknamed "hottentots".



Bell Heritage Trust

A large amount of Charles Davidson Bell original artworks still hang in the library of the parliament in Cape Town and University of Witwatersrand. 


Video: 

https://youtu.be/O6AedD-sLv0

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tau ya Moletsane

Image
 previously: History of Bataung Bataung are from the House of Rolong Makgothi Moletsane Abraham - Tau wa Mophethe Makgothi/Makhothi, son of Mophethe (clan BaMophethe le Thulo) was born about 1788 who became a famous chief (should be called King of Bataung). Makgothi's mother, Modiha'me/Moliha'me who had children before Makgothi but dead in infancy, they believed cause of death was spirits. In order to escape the evil spirits Modiha'me sent the infant Makgothi to an outlying cattle-post to be reared by the Bushmen herders of his father. The Bushmen were happy that chief Mophethe trusted them with his heir, they took great care of the boy. They showed him much affection and made him a girdle of shells of ostriches eggs called moletsa. The name Moletsane was a nickname for Makgothi wa Mophethe. Makgothi, now Moletsane was circumcised on the plain of Motloangtloang in 1803 during a famine. Chief Mokgele of the second family (clan BaMokgele-Rampai le Sobi) used to send men ...
Read more

A Brief Look at Stokvel, Taxi Association & Black Tax.

Image
Stokvels, Burial Societies and Black Tax in the South African context all have one purpose upliftment. Self-help organizations that are community driven and designed for a deprived class of citizens previously excluded from economically participation. They developed and adapted the informal financial structures to overcome the inaccessibility of formal structures of apartheid.  The origin of stokvel comes from the English settlers performing cattle auctions called stock fairs in the Eastern Cape during the early 1900s. The mutual financial assistance pooling clubs also known as stokvels, stokies, estokini, gegoois, gooi-goois, doodsgenootskap, burial society, mahodisana, mogodiso or kuholisana. Clan Commonwealth Financial structures like black Tax and stokvels have been in existence for thousands of years under different names in different languages like in Botswana: Poor members of the community were assisted by more affluent members through systems such as Mafisa (a financial sch...
Read more

Empire of the South: Ucalanga

Image
"Ucalanga"   “Obusa Bakalanga naBakwa, wakabusa xango sawoku: Wakabe ebvila kuDzimbabwe kanoti kumunya [“at the salt”= Makgadikgadi]; kunta yobuVenda eme ngeHuri [Limpopo]; kunta yoBurwa eme ngePalapye; kunta yoBunanzwa eme ngeZambezi. Kabusa yose odan’wa Chibundule.” "Ucalanga, it is very vast and includes many large cities, not to mention numerous villages; the city of Sofala itself is part of it, as is the entire coast. And the king who currently reigns over Ucalanga, Sire, is the son of Mocomba, who was also king of this realm. He is called Quesarymgo Menamotapa." - by  António da Conceição. The emergence of modern Bakalanga as a distinctive community can be traced to the abandonment of Great Zimbabwe in the 15th century. Due to politics some population of Great Zimbabwe moved north to found the Mwenemutapa state. At about the same time some Ikalanga traditions trace the formation of the Butwa state under Bakalanga Kingdom to the south-west migration of people f...
Read more