Who is Donovan Ward?

LABELLED:  Like Basil D’Oliveira, artist Donovan Ward grew up with apartheid’s insane obsession with race classification
LABELLED: Like Basil D’Oliveira, artist Donovan Ward grew up with apartheid’s insane obsession with race classification
PICTURE COURTESY OF DONOVAN WARD

SOUTH African artist Donovan Ward was born in 1962 and lives and works in Cape Town. His artist’s statement outlines his interest in the "diversity of African experience".

This arises from his own life both during and post-apartheid. As he says, "My own memories and experiences as a South African national labelled by the apartheid state as ’coloured’, ’non-white’, ’kleurling’ and, conversely, within my own community as ’whitey’ or ’Blanco’, informs my exploration outside of the confines of these narrow labels which all just referred to skin colour alone."

Ward’s intention is "to explore local shifting, contradictory and multiple identities which are not bounded, but identities which also influence each other". Through his work, he aims to show "that issues of race are about both similarities and differences".

back to the Basil D'Oliviera memorial page

"A black man can't be a white man during a day's sport, then revert to being a black man."
Basil D'Oliviera
Basil D'Oliviera, 1966
Picture © Sunday Times

IN THE CLASSROOM

Editorials: historical opinions and arguments

In this lesson plan, learners will become familiar with the concept of an editorial. They will be encouraged to identify the writer's opinion, and to follow the development of her/his arguments.

Lesson plan
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Archive Photo Gallery
Spotlight on a reluctant hero: Basil D’Oliveira in action on the field and in top hat and tails at Buckingham Palace.
Panorama
Take a 360° tour of the memorial site on Campground Road in Newlands, Cape Town.
Basil D'Oliviera - Lost son of South African Cricket
Features footage of the 1968 England-Australia test, and of BJ Vorster explaining why D’Oliveira could not play in his own country.