# Rorke's Drift Linocut

> The prints of the Lutheran art centre that Swedish teachers Peder and Ulla Gowenius started at Ceza Hospital in 1962 and moved to Rorke's Drift in 1963: under apartheid, which denied Black South Africans formal fine-art education, the chief training ground for many Black artists. Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Charles Nkosi and others cut black-and-white linocuts of Bible stories, Zulu and Kwanyama history and daily life, often crowded into horizontal bands with every gap filled by figures, foliage and pattern. Muafangejo added titles, dedications and commentary in the print itself.

- Period: 1962–1982
- Where: Sub-Saharan Africa
- Origin: Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, set up for the Church of Sweden Mission by the Konstfack-trained teachers Peder and Ulla Gowenius: linocut began with patients at Ceza Mission Hospital, Zululand, early in 1962; the centre opened at Umpumulo (Mapumulo) later in 1962 and moved to the Oscarsberg mission station at Rorke's Drift, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), in 1963; a Certificate in Fine Art followed in 1968 and the fine art section closed in 1982
- Branch: Pictorial & machine age
- Also known as: Rorke's Drift Printmaking, ELC Art and Craft Centre prints, Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre prints
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/rorkes-drift-print/

## Use it with care

These prints are the work of named Black South African and Namibian artists, many still in copyright with the artists or their estates, made under apartheid at a Lutheran mission centre. Rankin and Hobbs call the 'typical' Rorke's Drift print a construct that the market pushed artists to comply with; the centre also made etchings, aquatints, colour relief prints and screenprints, so treat this banded black-and-white linocut as one face of a diverse school, not the whole of it. Borrow the system (hand-cut black-and-white relief, banded narrative, words in the block), not a particular print, a named artist's figures or Muafangejo's lettering hand. Do not label generated work 'naive' or 'tribal' African art: when Clement Greenberg judged Art South Africa Today in 1975, Rorke's Drift artists were displayed in a 'catch all' section for representational and 'naive' works. Do not invent Zulu or Kwanyama ritual, Christian scenes or struggle martyrs as decoration: picture the subject the brief supplies in its own community's terms. Never add an artist's signature, edition number or a Rorke's Drift or ELC inscription to generated work, and never present a generated image as a Rorke's Drift print.

## How it works

- Cut the block in linoleum or wood and print it by hand in black on white paper, so the gouged white line does the drawing and tone comes from runs of fine cuts, not shading.
- Divide the sheet into horizontal bands or zones and read them like a strip; split each band into scenes of one story with trees or gesturing figures.
- Fill every gap: crowd figures, animals, foliage and pattern into a shallow, flat space with no perspective and no empty ground.
- Set the story here and now, among the faces, homes and landscape of its own community, so that even a Bible story happens locally, as these artists set theirs in Zulu and Kwanyama history and daily life.
- Where the story needs it, cut words into the block with the picture: a title, a dedication or a short line in hand-cut English letters that explains or comments on the scene.
- Build the image from stark contrasts of dark and light: dark, strongly outlined figure groups carry the action against lighter runs of foliage and pattern, or figures stand as flat black silhouettes.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (defining)
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (defining)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (occasional)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (occasional)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Carved line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/) (defining)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Abundant decoration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/abundant-decoration/) (characteristic)
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (characteristic)
- [Floral & vegetal](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/floral-and-vegetal/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (defining)
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (occasional)
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (occasional)
- [Diagram & data](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagram-and-data/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (occasional)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (occasional)
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (occasional)

Avoids: Naturalistic depiction, Illusion of depth, Generous white space, Gradients, Full polychrome, Straight photography, Gloss & highlights, Ironic & self-aware

Palette: #151210, #efe8d6, #f6f1e3, #2b2420, #d9cfb8

Typefaces: Hand-cut title in the block (John Muafangejo inscribed titles in the block with the picture, e.g. Angola and South West Africa, 1976), Hand-cut captions and slogans (Muafangejo's explanatory texts, dedications and English slogans such as 'Unite is Strengeth')

Known for: Muziweyixhwala (Muzi) Tabete, untitled linocut of a sacred spring guarded by a lion and four elephants (Ceza, 1962; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge), unsigned and often inscribed by Peder Gowenius; Azaria Mbatha, Potter's Workshop (linocut, 1962; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge), in his early silhouette style; Azaria Mbatha, The Revelation of St John (linocut, 1965, 376 x 680 mm; Iziko South African National Gallery): horizontal bands each split in three by trees and figures, prize for printmaking at Art South Africa Today 1965; John Muafangejo, Untitled ('Rorke's Drift School') (woodcut, 1969; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge), a large pictorial map of the centre's studios; John Muafangejo, Israel, Jews, Christians, Heathen – Our God for All People (linocut, 1981; Methodist Modern Art Collection): two Christs, each half black and half white, stacked one above the other with a range of faces between them; Charles Nkosi, Pain on the Cross II (linocut, 1976; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge), from the Crucifixion linocuts he made as a student at Rorke's Drift (1974–1976); Black/South Africa/Contemporary Graphics and Tapestries (Rorke's Drift Graphics), Brooklyn Museum, 25 March – 16 May 1976; Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin, Rorke's Drift: Empowering Prints (Double Storey, 2003) and its touring exhibition (2003–2005)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Alike in its design choices: [Torres Strait Islander Linocut](https://stylogeny.com/styles/torres-strait-linocut.md) (1991–present), 80% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Literatura de Cordel Woodcut](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cordel-woodcut.md) (1940–present), 73% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Lubok Popular Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/lubok.md) (1650–1920), 71% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Mexican Popular Graphics (Posada)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mexican-popular-graphics.md) (1880–1917), 65% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Norwegian and Finnish National Romantic Graphics (Munthe & Karelianism)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nordic-national-romanticism.md) (1880–1922), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Tibetan Woodblock Print Culture (Pecha & Prayer Flags)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tibetan-woodblock-print.md) (c. 1410–present), 63% alike

## Sources

- https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/rorkes-drift-art-and-craft-centre
- Elizabeth Rankin and Philippa Hobbs, on the Rorke's Drift printmakers, Mots Pluriels (University of Western Australia), https://motspluriels.arts.uwa.edu.au/MP1299r&h.html
- https://www.iziko.org.za/masterpiece/masterpiece-of-the-month-the-revelation-of-st-john-1965/
- https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/555848
- https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/555785
- https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/555782
- https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/555801
- https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/445962
- https://www.methodist.org.uk/faith/the-methodist-modern-art-collection/browse-the-collection/israel-jews-christians-heathen-our-god-for-all-people-john-muafangejo/
- https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0921/21161.html
- Strauss & Co, John Muafangejo, Angola and South West Africa (linocut, 1976), 'inscribed with the title in the block', https://www.straussart.co.za/auctions/lot/3-may-2021/23
- Strauss & Co, John Muafangejo, A Rich Man (linocut, 1985), title inscribed in the image, https://www.straussart.co.za/auctions/lot/507-11-may-2026/221
- https://brooklynmuseum.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/38501
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorke%27s_Drift_Art_and_Craft_Centre
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muafangejo
- Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin, Rorke's Drift: Empowering Prints (Cape Town: Double Storey, 2003)
- Orde Levinson, I Was Lonelyness: The Complete Graphic Works of John Muafangejo (Cape Town: Struik Winchester, 1992)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Rorke's Drift Linocut”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/rorkes-drift-print/