SOI AND NJENGA: TWO ELDER STATESMEN OF KENYAN ART LEAVE US

 

                                                                                           Ancent Soi's City Life

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted April 4, 2022)

It was quite a blow to the Kenyan art world to lose two elder statesmen of the arts in less than a week.

Ancent Soi, 88, passed peacefully on a Thursday, 24^th March early in the morning while he was still in his sleep. Edward Njenga left us the following Tuesday, March 29^th while in the hospital for something that began as a small injury to his thumb but spiraled into a challenge that deprived him of reaching his centenary, 100 years. He was 99.

                                                          Edward Njenga's terracotta Wanjiru and her two babies 

Soi the painter and Njenga the sculptor, both men were pioneers in their respective fields. Both were trailblazers, gentle geniuses who had mastered their media, message, and technique many decades ago. Thus, their names might be unfamiliar to younger generations of Kenyans.

Yet both Soi and Njenga should have monuments made in their names to acknowledge their immense contribution to the arts in Kenya. Their passing should also inspire a deeper commitment to establishing a National Art Gallery since both men were concerned about their art not leaving the country.

Both were keen to ensure that Kenyans themselves ultimately come to appreciate the role of the arts in the country’s development. That was why Njenga consciously chose not to sell all of his sculptures. He told BDLife often over the years that he wanted the bulk of his work to stay here for Kenyans to see. He even built lockable glass display cases for his terracotta figurines to be seen but not touched or taken out of a local context.

Njenga was far-sighted in this regard, since so much of the subject matter that he created came out of his first-hand experience working as a social worker for many years in Eastleigh. The characters that he created were mostly of the poor, lame, infirm, and heavy-laden with child. That’s because he worked next to the Eastleigh Health Centre. He also sculpted vagabond pick-pockets and parking boys who scavenged for food from garbage bins.

Some of Njenga’s best work has already left the country. It was a terracotta installation reflecting the Emergency and the mistreatment of detainees who were physically and psychologically abused by local Home Guards and spurred on by one British Army Officer overseeing the torture of squatting Africans.

Ancent Soi’s art also reflected the lives of local people, yet it feels far less political and more idyllic. Put another way, Soi’s characters are a mix of rural and urban folk while Njenga’s are mainly urbanites.

Soi’s paintings all contain narratives that revealed his storyteller-side. His colors are bright, often psychedelic. And while he also specialized in landscapes that reflect the dry savannah plains of his Ukambani homeland, he often included animals that once roamed freely in his neighborhood. That was before the local population exploded and the conflict between animals and human led to radical reductions of the wildlife.

Thus, in both artists’ works, we can see remnants of an earlier time when the full effect of colonialism and globalization was yet to be felt.

I don’t know if Soi felt as strongly as Njenga did, that he didn’t want to sell all his art to overseas buyers. But since his son Michael (who is also an awesome artist) says his father left behind hundreds of finished paintings that are still unsold, Soi Sr. also left a legacy that needs to be preserved.

One hopes the families of both artists will give serious thought to holding retrospective exhibitions soon to give the youth and the rest of us an opportunity to see why we say both men were great artists who are bound to be more fully recognized now that they are no longer with us, except in their art.

We all recall the situation of Vincent van Gogh who sold one painting in his lifetime. Yet, today his art sells for the millions and he’s among the most renowned artists in the world.

Both Njenga and Soi deserve similar recognition. Hopefully, Kenyans themselves will step up and ensure that artists like these two deserve to be revered and widely recognized for the amazing works they produced up to the very end of their lives.

We are sad to have lost Njenga and Soi, but I for one feel privileged to have known them and witnessed their artistic evolution. They stand with the same honored status as the late, great Kenyan sculptor Samwel Wanjau. They are not with us today but each has left a legacy of love we can honor as our own.