Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Artist dreams of passing on his passion to others
AFTER turning a portion of his backroom into an art studio, a talented artist from Khayelitsha hopes to one day pass on his skills to children from his area.
Wanda “Jambi” Lumani from Khayelitsha fell in love with drawing at an early age.
He was not exposed to art while he was growing up and this is something he wants to change.
He said his love and passion for art grew, especially when he got to high school.
When he got a chance to choose the subjects he wanted to do, his parents were not happy with him.
“I came back home one time with a form of the subjects I had chosen to do, for my parents to sign, but they shouted at me asking what will I eat if I did art,” he said.
Lumani said he had to change his subject choice but even though he was no longer doing art, when they had school projects that required them to draw or design something, classmates wanted to be in his group.
He failed Grade 12 but he is not sure if it wasn’t the subject choice because when he rewrote his matric exams the following year in a different school, he chose art as one of his subjects and passed.
After finishing school and knowing he had talent in art, he decided to study graphic design because it sounded fancy enough for his parents to approve.
“After finishing school I had to work until I managed to get into the Ruth Prowse School of Art, which is where more opportunities for me opened up,” he said.
As part of their curriculum, as third-year students, they were asked to come up with an idea for a book and design everything.
He decided to tell stories of people who were making a positive impact in Khayelitsha and the title of his book was
“My book was about documenting those people and to show the positive side of Khayelitsha because the place is known for all the wrong reasons,” said Lumani.
He said even though the book was his school project, he would have loved it to be published but, because of a lack of funds, it was not possible.
He is now working on a second book.
Children of the Hustle.