The Link

Postcolonial Implications on my creativity

From a young age I understood that I can never do art. Art is for the caucasian ( mainly those of South African descend as Namibia was almost annexed as the sixth South African province). This mentally was entrenched too deep in my mind that I was convinced that art, can never be a career that one could make a proper livelihood from.

Thus, I planned my entire life. I forgot to mention that I am a persuasive planner, worse than Caroline Forbes, mainly on science subject and the science field. Since, in my community or society the only jobs were those that involved engineering, and teaching ( but all of my friends and most our class mates no one wanted a teaching job as it was under paid and so far I have not heard nor seen anyone of us being a teacher. They all ended up being lawyers, accountants, engineers and business owners and managers).

During the time I was in grade 7, I had mapped the following chart

 

My mothers Generation: During the Bantu System people of colour students were only allowed to study until grade 10 or standard 8. There after they would become teachers, nurses and skilled workers: They not allowed to become doctors, engineers, plumbers, accountants

In fact, growing up we were only exposed to seeing our parents as nurses and teachers. The options of other careers only become evident in the 8th grade. One can deduce that from a young age I have been unknowingly being controlled and dictated by the apartheid system  (which falls under colonialism), and I thought that that is just how things were, or were suppose to be.

In conclusion colonialism has affected my life even before, I was aware of it. I was born into a world dominated and subjected  to colonialism (apartheid). Even though it ended when we became independent in 1990, it still had affect in my life.

This is the kind of links I am looking for. In your design career is there any evidence of the impact of colonialism or postcolonialism. If you can identify some, and you are interested in taking part in this research. Please contact me through the contact form so that I may send you the questionnaire (the questions needs to be the same as the other studios or graphic designers).