As a young man, I was blessed to meet the great Namibian artist John Muafangejo in Windhoek, in the early 1980’s, just before his untimely death in 1987 at the age of 44. His woodcuts have accompanied me for more than 30 years, and still have the power to move me to tears. 1/6 
John was not just the greatest Nambian artist - he was a great artist in any context. His woodcuts, combining images & text, reflect both his life-journey from poverty to international recognition - and the history of that uniquely beautiful and often tragic country Namibia. 2/6
John's best known works are in the style of the ones above, but it's his far more challenging political woodcuts - imbued with the spirit of liberation theology and the struggle for Namibian independence - that his true greatness lies. 3/6
Devoutly religious, this is John's joyous celebration in 1986 of the election of Desmond Tutu as Archbishop of Cape Town. 4/6
John was deeply influenced by the history of his own Ovambo people, with the murderous legacy of German and South African oppression never forgotten. 5/6
John Muafangejo's integrated woodcut texts echo the pages of a block-book or Biblia Pauperum, seen through the prism of his Ovambo heritage & 20th cent. liberation theology. They're now found in the permanent collections of many of the world's great museums of modern art. 6/6
