There’s something fascinating about the relationship between artists and the small towns in which they were born or spent time in before establishing their careers elsewhere.
Think of Olive Schreiner and her creaky childhood home in Cradock, surrounded by the koppies, or the misty forests of Hogsback, birthplace of Tolkien. Did the open grasslands of Schweizer-Reneke have any influence on Irma Stern’s paintings? Was Sol Plaatje’s way of seeing and making sense of the world shaped, in part, by his upbringing in the small mission station Pniel? And what did the mountainous Karoo town of KwaNojoli give to Walter Battiss?
Read the full article on Wanted here.
David Mann is a writer, editor and art critic from Johannesburg. He participated in the Jakes Gerwel Foundation’s 2026 PEN it Down writing residency.
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I always like the story you publish here and opportunity for the writers.