Cape Town - With nothing but a paint brush and passion, Richard Marthinus is branching towards art in hopes of highlighting coloured youths who perished during the apartheid era.
Using the walls of Kannemeyer Primary School in Grassy Park, Marthinus dedicated his off days to illustrate a tree-like design in order to act as a reminder of the connection the community have with the fallen heroes.
With roots in Steenberg and Hanover Park, Marthinus said despite living in the Southern Suburbs now, painting the mural was an emotional process, and he went through it solemnly because he wanted to do his part in acknowledging those who laid down their lives under that brutal regime in hope of freedom.
“It was an emotional process but it filled my heart with gratitude to be able in some small way to say thank you to them for their sacrifice. I could not help but feel that bullets hit their flesh and cut them down.
“During the Struggle years, I saw riots first-hand running through tyre smoke and police bullets home from school. I witnessed scholars with just stones and metal dustbin covers take on the riot police. Through this mural, I wanted to remember those who were never acknowledged for laying down their lives under that brutal regime. To honour them and their parents. To inspire the youth to be proud of this beautiful land to accept that it belongs to all who bled for it,” said Marthinus.
Ruth Bowles, the chairperson of the African Restoration Alliance for the branch in ward 173 and the commissioner of the mural, said Marthinus’s idea of highlighting the fallen heroes in the community was crucial, because it served to be a reminder that the freedom experienced today, was not attained easily.
“When Marthinus approached me about this idea, I immediately resonated with the importance of and the impact it will have on our community. In today’s society we see how the shootings happen every day and gangsters are the role models, while they are actual role models that fought for their freedom rather than their enslavement into the life of gangsterism.
“I think what Marthinus is doing is so important, paying homage to their sacrifice is so crucial because they died so that we can get to swim at Muizenberg beach, they died so that we could live around Rondebosch.
“All we want is to have the mural resonate with the people in the community. We want young people to be inspired by the role these young people played. We want them to see and understand the cost of solarity. Nowadays, I see a lot of entitlement in schools. Being a teacher myself, I see how pupils are so entitled to things, yet they forget or are yet to know that this freedom we have today was not entirely free, it came at the cost of blood, sweat and tears,” said Bowles.
With the inspiration to make an impact, Marthinus said art was the perfect way to make that impact as it was the dialogue the townships have used to express themselves.
“Art remains a means of communication in the townships and very much so in the Struggle years. It can stop people for a moment to reflect on how far we have come, what we sacrificed, how much we still have to do to be recognised as human beings by those that still oppress us. And for people to draw strength from the defiance of those who paid the ultimate price.
“It is paramount that we remember them with honour especially on Youth Day for it was the youth of that time that screamed in unison ‘No we do not accept to live under these conditions’. A lesson to remember that we can do and must help ourselves,” said Marthinus.