It may mean nothing to you and you might care less for why he does it, but Linga Dika eats, breaths and lives art. In one of the classes at Victoria Girls High Linga displays his work of art to visitors coming in for the National Art Festival in Grahamstown.
He has all his beautiful paintings on a classroom wall. Dika stood up and moved towards one of the paintings he described as his favourite. A nice picture with a written text at the bottom “Same place...Same time...They meet again”. He placed his hand on the painting, “This is where my mom and dad met”, said Dika adding that all his painting are his favourite but that one specifically means a lot to him because it is a painting of a place where his parents met when they were young and fell in love.
He said that he has been making paintings since 1983 and they all carry different meanings and messages behind them. “I get inspiration from people and places where people live to create these cards” he said. A painting of Hlalani Township that was destroyed in 1984 and replaced by RDP houses draws one’s attention.
Dika began attending the festival in 2005, he said that each year the experience is different because this year he has not made good profit so far since the beginning of the festival. “I think this year people are more into theatre that’s why this place is so quiet”, Dika said. He said that art means different things to different people that why he has not seen many people coming in to see his wok.
Dika is not discouraged by the number of customers or the amount of profit he makes, his love for art is what keeps him positive that after today he might be welcoming many people to buy the paintings.
By Sindisiwe Mthembu
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