Jak Katarikawe

Jak Karatikawe was every expatriate’s African artist of interest, known for his pastoral storytelling and whimsical erotic compositions on canvas. Dubbed as the Africa’s Chargall for his artworks’ resemblance to Marc Chagall’s – the late 20th century European impressionist artist, he was the most widely collected artist of his generation. Like Chagall, Karatakawe’s use of colour and depiction of animals and villages was inspired as much by his dreams as his reality.

Made aware of his work’s likeness to Chargall, as a popular legend goes, Katarikawe insisted that his European counterpart must have copied him. But when he learned of Chargall’s age, he concluded that they must have shared the same dreams.

“this Shagaal, this Maatisa, they saw my paintings and painted like me.”

“We must [have] dream[ed] the same dreams, then.”

A Ugandan in origin stemming from his birth and child to early adulthood upbringing in the 20th century British protectorate that came to be known as Uganda, he ultimately made his home in Nairobi, Kenya (another 20th century British protectorate).

Born into a polygomous home in Kigezi, Kabale, South-Western Uganda, it is his mother, Damare Keumbura, the second-youngest wife to his father, and a fervent painter (in ash) of the exterior walls of her wattle and daub house with depictions of animals who would spark his interest in art. To this one might add that the religious artwork Katarikawe saw at a church in Rushoroza was also part of the inspiration that drove him to paint. In a March 14, 1990 Interview with curator Agthe, Karatikawe revealed:

You know, to be artist, it came by God. Because one day, Sunday, I in the church. And my cousin-he was a schoolboy-now we went to church together. We were sitting, we were waiting. I said: ‘Oh, my God, look Jesus. These people were making (a) photograph from Jesus.’ He said: “No, this is a painting.’ I said: ‘What is a painting?’ He told me it is painting brush. Okay, I catch this in my head. Always when I was looking after I said: ‘This picture of Jesus’-he says: Brush, paint.

The following autobiographical statement made by Karatikawe in 2008 interview with journalist Oganda also effectively captures his art-inspired amusement:

“…I queried if that kind of brush is the one he used for hair combing and to my surprise Evarest said a big no. This made me fear God especially after realizing that he made people with such a talent. I left the church with two words, paint and brush on my heart.”

Nonetheless, his evolution into an internationally acclaimed painter was quite interesting. You see, Karatikawe never had a formal education because his father, having retired, lacked school fees to afford him one. So he would grow up as a Kigezi-herdsboy eventually relocating to Kampala where he morphed into a city taxi driver.

Then in 1962 thereabouts, he became known to Dr. David Cooke (a Makerere University professor of Literature) who would often hire Karatikawe as his driver. When Cooke was away lecturing or conducting research, Karatikawe would use that time to paint. And in a coincidental turn of events, Cooke discovered a few of Karatikawe’s paintings stashed away in his car’s boot. As he would further reveal to Ogonda:

“There were times when I could leave the car unattended and peep through the window of an art class at Makerere. I admired what the students did. One day, I was with Cook on the car when it developed a puncture. When I moved to open the boot, he saw the drawings I had been working on. This made me very uneasy for I thought I would lose my only source of daily bread. Surprisingly, Teacher as I used to call him, was amazed after he went through the drawings. I did not know what would follow,”

Amazed at his lucid artistic eloquence, Cooke brought him under the tutelage of Samuel Joseph Ntiro a fine art professor and head of Art school who had taken over from Margaret Trowell after she retired in 1958. The objective was to help Katarikawe benefit from formal instruction. Having been almost like a nobody, Karatikawe had now become a somebody. Afterwards, the English painter and print maker Michael Adams took him under his wing and even gave him his first water colours. It’s also around this period that Katarikawe would be first introduced to fellow East African artist Elimo Njau – a former art student and then lecturer at Makerere.

Subsequently, the Ugandan-born maestro would quit driving and focus on creating art in Sam Ntiro’s studio where he had been allowed access by the lecturer. Also, he would take a part-time job demonstrating and playing local African Instruments like “zither” from Kigezi. 

Unfortunately, because of the lack any form of prior formal education, it was rumoured that some of Sam Ntiro’s students detested his admission into art classes. On a side note, it’s not surprising that Katarikawe himself struggled with reading and writing:

“Katarikawe’s sponsor David Cook, then a Makerere English professor, spends three months teaching him to print his signature in block capitals, but the artist never learns to read and write.”

And with English becoming the lingua franca in East Africa, not once had Katarikawe been a subject of mockery by his classmates or even lecturers for his ‘rusty’ English occasioned by his lack of a formal education. One telling instance is where: 

“…a Makerere lecturer, knowing Katarikawe is illiterate, tries to humiliate him by asking him to write on the blackboard in front of foreign visitors..”

Nevertheless, for Katarikawe, admission into Makerere’s art classes presented a chance for him to prove that he could morph into a bona fide A-side artist of his generation and not just a wannabe. Exhibiting for the very first time at the Uganda Museum and National Theatre, Kampala, Uganda, in 1966, the idea of earning from artmaking had never crossed his mind. So it would in 1968 where the lauded artist became aware of the earning potential of his craft.

“It was in 1968 that I first realised that I could earn a living from paintings. After becoming a member of the East African Artists” Association, we held an exhibition in Kampala in which my painting titled Beetles in honour of the British music group, came third overall and was sold for USh6000. I used this to put up a house for my mother.”

Soon he would cross border to host solo exhibitions in other galleries of East African nations – first in Kibo Gallery, Moshi, Tanzania then  Paa ya Paa Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya on separate dates of the year 1968. With the former, he had the misfortune of his watercolour-rendered artworks getting destroyed by rain while in-transit. That would be last time he’d vow to use watercolours.

But this artistic leap would be prematurely halted. The cause? Very straightforwardly political. 

Following the 1970s outbreak of the civil war in Uganda precipitated by Idi Amin Dada’s claim and rise to power in 1971, the Makerere University’s fraternity at Kampala were at risk of political persecution, so much so that the Vice Chancellor went missing. To that effect, there would be a mass exodus of Makerere’s staff especially those of foreign origin including David Cook, Elimo Njau, and Sam Ntiro. Karatikawe would retreat to his rural home in Kigezi.

However, in 1975 therebouts, amidst the ongoing civil unrest, Karatikawe would be employed as a lecturer in Makerere University’s Music department to teach post-graduate music students. 

“In the course of the next hour, Jak tells me about his life in Amin’s Uganda, of teaching post-graduate music students  at Makerere University the traditional music and instruments of the Bakiga, of being forced out of his university post when it was ‘discovered’ – a fact Jak had never hidden – that he could not read and write…”

What the civil crisis created was a stiffled atmosphere that no doubt detered the progress of artists by freezing external patronage. As his opportunities for newer exhibitions eventually became non-existent, Katarikawe retreated to his rural home in Kigezi where he ventured into farming and subsequently married – he’s said to have had a harem that included seven wives.

Ironically, that period of unprecedented turmoil carried with it an opportunity. Indeed, with several  of Makerere artists and professors having fled Uganda to Kenya, Karatikawe would follow suit in 1980 – a move that kept that artistic spark alive. Upon his arrival to Nairobi, former fellow student and art teacher at Makerere’s art school, Elimo Njau, was the first to host him even providing him with gallery space for painting and exhibitions along with Kenyan sculptor Samuel Wanjau at Paa ya Paa.

But despite his brief stint at Makerere as a student, Katarikawe was primarily a self-taught artist that had painted since childhood. And in a dog-eat-dog city where self-taught artists like him were the norm, it wouldn’t take long before he was thrust into the limelight. Sooner he’d be one of the first artists, later in 1980, to have a one man show at the French Cultural Centre, three years after its launch in 1977.

Further Opportunities for Exhibitions and Shows in Other Galleries Especially Gallery Watatu

Gallery Watatu had found, in 1984 and/or 1985, a new owner, Ruth Schafner – the German collector that was interested in original (‘tribal,’ or ‘primitive’) African art whom Katarikawe owes much of his successes and to an extent ‘failures.’

Of all the artists who exhibited at Gallery Watatu between 1985 and 1996, none had a prominent position in Ruth’s priority list (assuming there was one) quite like Katarikawe. Before he was known to Ruth, the inimitable artist rented a room upstairs at Paradise Hotel on Tom Mboya street and used it as a sleep-in-art studio. But after Ruth took an interest in his work, she convinced him to move to the pricier Norfolk apartments situated near the hotel terming his former living place as ‘insecure.’

Indeed, if this move was anything to go by, then it was an incontestable demonstration of how much Katarikawe’s oeuvre mattered to Ruth and gave the impression that she wanted an unrivalled access to his creative output. Katarikawe is said to have been the highest earning artist then – earning KES 100,000 for every sale of each of his oil paintings. Ruth paid his rent from the money she made selling Katarikawe’s paintings as well as advanced him pocket money whenever he needed. 

Margaretta wa Gacheru, writer and art critic who has tracked and written about scores of artists in East Africa wrote the following: 

“Ruth quickly took Jak under her wing and soon became his mentor, mother-figure, accountant and bank. She took his art worldwide, particularly to West Germany and the US where she owned two galleries in Los Angeles and sold his oil paintings like hotcakes.”

Nonetheless, Katarikawe was also involved in other projects as well. For instance, from 1986, Katarikawe collaborated with the  Kitengala-based glass artist Nani Croze and Dr. Eric Krystal, to create poster art which covered topics like family planning, female genital mutilation and HIV/AIDS awareness in various annual artist shows organized and funded by the NGO, Family Planning Private Sector (FPSS).  His work would be included in FPSS calendars that went all over Kenya along with those of other artists like Wanyu Brush, Sakuro Etale, Francis Mbugua, Charles Sekano among others.

The Katarikawe-Ruth partnership led to a great deal of asymmetric reliance with the artist becoming more financially dependant on her and perhaps even emotionally. And although hardly did Ruth want to infantilise the path-breaking artist, she still ended up doing so which unfortunately disadvantaged him. For instance, Katarikawe never investigated and/or tracked how much his paintings were sold in Europe and barely concerned himself with the settlement of his bills. It’s no secret that Ruth sold Katarikawe’s artworks abroad in the six figures.

From 1997, Katarikawe’s capacity for creating enigmatic and allegorical paintings imbued with dreamlike figures and landscapes would start to wane. His enthusiasm for telling stories about his artworks also faded. Reason? Ruth Schaffner, perhaps the most influential collector of the contemporary Kenyan art scene and ‘mother figure’ to Katarikawe had breathed her last in 1996. It was without a doubt a tough pill swallow for the artist and revealed itself in his practice. Wanyu Brush, another Kenyan maestro who sold his paintings through Ruth’s Gallery Watatu, lamented, “There will never be another Ruth, not in 200 years.”

With Katarikawe’s creative output having taken a hit, art sales were few and far between and he started defaulting on his rent at the Norfolk. Family, friends, and fellow artists advised him to relocate to a less expensive apartment which he stubbornly did. And its here, a Forest Road flat managed by Shallow Management, where he lived with his wife, Florence and their son, Sande Lucas as they adjusted to their new reality of a highly factionalized artworld bereft Ruth’s marketing edge and abroad connections.

Osie Kofi, the Ghanaian former journalist turned art collector employed by Ruth’s husband and artefacts dealer from IvoryCost, Adama Diawara, would take over Gallery Watatu’s operations as its director at the turn of the century. But despite Osei’s love for Katarikawe’s art coupled with his enthusiasm to promote it abroad, and frequent pestering by foreign collectors visiting Kenya, hardly would the artist reclaim his creative edge and the effortless style of visual storytelling.