Gerard Sekoto

Sekoto was born on 9 December 1913 at the Lutheran Mission Station in Botshabelo, near Middelburg, Eastern Transvaal (now known as Mpumalanga).

[3] As the son of a missionary, he experienced music as a part of his life and was introduced to the family harmonium at an early age.

Grace Dieu had a number of skilled woodcarvers producing sculptures on commission as well as for competitions such as the annual South African Academy exhibition.

The sculptor Ernest Mancoba was a close friend of Sekoto's at Grace Dieu, and the two dreamed of going to Europe to attend art school.

[4] Sekoto, though, never fit within the paternalistic, prescribed sculpting style at Grace Dieu, preferring to paint and draw on his own.

During this time he entered an art competition (the May Esther Bedford) organised by the Fort Hare University, for which he was awarded second prize.

It is said that when Sekoto departed from South Africa, the people that were familiar with his work felt a great loss from him leaving.

Here he played jazz and sang "Negro spirituals", popular French songs of the period and some Harry Belafonte.

He composed 29 songs, mostly excessively poignant, recalling the loneliness of exile, yet displaying the inordinate courage of someone battling to survive in a foreign cultural environment.