Rorke’s Drift and Southern African Printmaking
A focused history of printmaking at Rorkes Drift through the distinct practices of Azaria Mbatha, Dan Rakgoathe and Namibian artist John Muafangejo.
A centre and its context
There is no single “South African printmakers’ school” that explains these artists. A more useful point of connection is the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift, established in 1962. Under apartheid, Black artists faced severe limits on access to formal art education. The centre offered teaching, workshop facilities and a setting for exchange, while its wider craft programme included textile production and weaving. These activities were part of the institution’s economic as well as artistic life.
Printmaking mattered partly because one matrix could produce multiple impressions. Artists at Rorke’s Drift worked in relief processes such as linocut and in intaglio techniques including etching. The centre connected people and skills; it did not impose one visual language. The biographies of Azaria Mbatha, Dan Rakgoathe and John Muafangejo make this distinction clear.
Azaria Mbatha: layered narrative
Mbatha encountered linocut in the early 1960s and had established a mature practice by the middle of that decade. His prints bring biblical stories into dialogue with Zulu histories and visual forms. Intricate cutting and carefully ordered fields allow several episodes or symbolic references to coexist. Rather than illustrating scripture as an imported subject, Mbatha situated it within an African social and moral world.
After further training in Sweden, he returned to South Africa and taught textile screenprinting. His career shows how printmaking at Rorke’s Drift could become a continuing practice linked to teaching and international museum networks.
Dan Rakgoathe: myth and philosophical inquiry
After studying at Ndaleni and enrolling at the University of South Africa, Rakgoathe moved to Rorke’s Drift in 1967 as its first full-time fine-arts student. His work drew on African myth and legend to explore spiritual and philosophical questions. Linocut and etching offered ways to develop symbolic narratives in which human and otherworldly figures meet.
Rakgoathe later taught art and worked in cultural education, including at Mofolo Art Centre. His practice belongs to the Rorke’s Drift story and a broader network of South African art education, but is distinct from Mbatha’s religious narratives and Muafangejo’s autobiographical inscriptions.
John Muafangejo: text, memory and testimony
John Muafangejo was Namibian, born in southern Angola in 1943, and attended Rorke’s Drift from 1967 to 1969. His life crossed borders that later became national boundaries. In his linocuts, words are carved into the block, making writing integral to the image’s rhythm and meaning. His subjects include personal memory, Kwanyama experience, Christian imagery and political realities.
His graphic marks often feel immediate and expressive, unlike Mbatha’s dense patterns or Rakgoathe’s mythic symbolism. He went on to teach at Odibo and became widely exhibited, including at the São Paulo Biennial in 1972 and Brooklyn Museum in 1976. His career shows why the history of Rorke’s Drift should be understood regionally, beyond South Africa’s present borders.
A connected history, not a single style
These artists shared an institutional setting, a period of study and access to printmaking facilities. Their work nonetheless resists a uniform label. Mbatha built layered religious and social narratives; Rakgoathe turned to myth and philosophical inquiry; Muafangejo joined image and carved text in a distinctive autobiographical and political voice. Their differences are not exceptions to Rorke’s Drift. They show what a workshop and educational centre could make possible: exchange without erasing individual authorship.
Their exhibition histories also show how practices from southern Africa reached international audiences, while artists continued teaching and working in Namibia and South Africa. This history connects institutions that enabled printmaking with the varied ways artists addressed religion, memory and society.
Sources and further reading
- South African History Online, “The Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre.”
- Iziko Museums, “The Revelation of St John (1965).”
- SABC Art Collection, Azaria Mbatha.
- South African History Online, Daniel Sefudi Rakgoathe.
- The Museum of Modern Art, Dan Rakgoathe.
- John Muafangejo Trust, virtual museum.
- Johannesburg Art Gallery, Art Handbook (2022).
Explore the biographies of Azaria Mbatha, Dan Rakgoathe and John Muafangejo.