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Amanzi Amthatha

Nomathemba Tana. Amanzi Amthatha from Makana Remembered, by various artists. 2001

Nomathemba Tana (South African, born 1953; lives Grahamstown, Eastern Cape). Amanzi Amthatha from Makana Remembered, by various artists. 2001. Linoleum cut from a portfolio of twenty prints of various mediums. Composition: 19 3/16 × 13 7/8" (48.8 × 35.2 cm); sheet: 24 1/2 x 18 3/4" (62.2 x 47.6 cm). Publisher: Egazini Outreach Project, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Printer: Fine Line Press and Print Research Unit, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. Edition: 10. Katsko Suzuki Memorial Fund, 2005. © 2011 Nomathemba Tana and Fine Line Press and Print Research Unit, Rhodes University

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Amanzi Amthatha (“The cold water takes him”) commemorates the Xhosa warrior-prophet Makana, who led attacks against the British in 1819 and was captured and imprisoned on Robben Island, off Cape Town (the same prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated from 1964 to 1982). The print suggests the treacherous waters surrounding Robben Island, in which Makana and thirty others died when their boat capsized during an escape attempt. This print is part of a group portfolio by Nomathemba Tana and nineteen other artists involved with the Egazini Outreach Project, which was founded in 2000 to use printmaking to document regional Xhosa history.