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CECIL SKOTNES    
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PRINTS FROM 'THE ASSASINATION OF SHAKA' PORTFOLIO' - CECIL SKOTNES & STEVEN GRAY    
             

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 3.Senzangakona Seduces Nandi 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28275
Price on request
 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 4.Shaka the Herdboy 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28276
Price on request
 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 7.Shaka Kills the Leopard 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28277
Price on request
 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 9.Shaka the Young Warrior 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28278
Price on request
             

O Senzangakona
broke my mother's flesh
he played and promised her
chiefs could do no wrong
a Zulu chief was nothing then
my mother was nothing
she bled
the black shell of a beetle ishaka
he said was swelling inside her
down I was dropped on dull earth

 

the unwanted son
sent to watch the outermost herd
an earthworm between my legs
the shoulder hunch of having no home
and no patience
teased in the shade
of cattle

 

once at Jobe's kraal
at nineteen (Mhlangane)
my front apron rising with sap (Mhlangane)
in the days when men like you stood back from killing
threw assegais into nowhere and called that brave
(Mhlangane)
I walked into a leopard with a chief's skin
(Mhlangane)
and thrust that brittle spear down its throat
that lesser people like you might be spared

 

I know that first cry
of another man's blood
with the Izicwe the bush regiment singling out a man
on Dingiswayo's other side his ribs a beating target
and my own a heart's trap
I know the suck of a blade
as he goes down eating earth
(Mhlangane)

 

             

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 11.The Forging of The Stabbing Spear 19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28279
Price on request
  Cecil Skotnes
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 14.Kwabulawayo Kraal 19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28280
Price on request
 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title:17.Dingiswayo Advises Shaka 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28281
Price on request
 


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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 19.Shaka Defeats Zwide
19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28282
Price on request

             
the bellows opened a flame
a shaft of iron in the blast
at Ngonyama's place
the melting down of all our
weaponry into
one stabbing spear
when beside the secret forge
through trees like props of dark came
  Kwabulawayo was a market
of little worth
at first the curving huts
with not much industry
dust from splayed hoofs
and reed fences (Dingane)
like the one you hide behind
pastoral I suppose
but far too humble
(Dingane) to satisfy
the place of killing
was hardly alive
 

but I had to humiliate
myself a while on this mat
at Dingiswayo's soft feet
he told me there'd be time
before a pale imported machine
came galloping round my
fields of blood he told
of a tree spreading taller

 

  then Zwide collector of skulls
my Fasimba boys in perfect
ranks close secateurs
of spinal cords and off
with their rolling heads
             

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 23.Shaka Spits out a Solar Eclipse 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28283
Price on request
  Cecil Skotnes
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 25.Shaka's Elephant Hunt 19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28284
Price on request
 


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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 27.Shaka Relaxes with his Concubines 19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28285
Price on request

 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 29.Shaka Kills an Heir 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28286
Price on request
             

you don't believe that
I am a god
this spurt out of my lungs
had a god's power
I will get it over with
when the royal sun
was eclipsed
I stood before it and
spat the blackness out
and the sun
was reborn

 

  what better celebration than hunting my elephant
we beat (Dingane) beat royal herds of
impala
pig lion leopard
the elephant across
a cleft of the white and black Umfolozi we hamstrung
such elephant (Dingane)
the Portuguese want more ivory see
to it
it's your one mistake
all my elephants tumble down
  the world reeled out of
abstinence and my sisters
clicked pink palettes
you must admit that took
some discipline twelve
hundred black virgins
to be loved by me
I don't think they were
dissatisfied
 

held by laws like gravity
together to our stretching soil
why should a hub of the just
unbalance in front of a son
I tripped his baby heels and
swung his brains on a rock

 

             

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 30.Shaka Punishes Decietful Witchdoctresses 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28287
Price on request
 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 31.Shaka Presides over his Court of Justice
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28288
Price on request

 


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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 33.British Traders Arrive
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28289
Price on request

 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 37.Shaka Kills an Heir 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28290
Price on request
             

and impaled all retrograde witches
the women with nostrils of bias
smelling out their jealousy
on skewers of wood
so that all could nose up to their pouches of decay

 

  that is why our seasons
revolved about trials
of free men and a long rein
for the trusted (Dingane)
a twist of the neck for the bad
  there was no getting away
from the mermen of Port Natal
they circled my new Kwabulawayo
on pale horses with pale sunhats
and rifles
they were entertaining
Farewell Fynn Isaacs
with fingers for skins and conviction
that shaking hands made a bargain
they were not that impressed
with women route marches
raids showed of bravery
so I signed a meticulous document
gave them Durban Bluff
Berea Congella to tie
their king's anchor
 

you have no vision (Mbopa my deadly counsellor)
I sent diplomatic gifts
not to stand in a trader's shadow
not to rustle their mongrel cattle
but that your children
be theirs too (Mbopa)

 

             

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 38.Lieutenant King returns Knickknacks to Shaka
19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
SOLD
Cecil Skotnes
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 39. Shaka Tries a Headman 19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28291
Price on request
 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 40.Pondos Brings Shaka Peace Offerings 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28292
Price on request
 
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 41. Mhlange Dingane and Mbopa Lie in Wait 19/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28293
Price on request
             
kink Georgie returned me his trash
a mirror a copper bead
is it for that black muscle
will dock ships work factories
tar roads underneath gold
clutter and smoke out locations
King Georgie he sent me his trash
a mirror a copper bead
  only this morning I knew brotherhood
I grew tired of the killing
(Mbopa)
when an old Zulu
praised his judge
Shaka my king he said
your name
Shaka
Zulu
will live
and I let him live
 

only this morning I cried
for my people (Mbopa)
a land without restless men
my tears are cloudbursts
when snivelling Pondos brought crane feathers for a king and this cloak of skin for peace

 

 

  you mean three
crouched for your own good
no hyenas will touch my flesh
for you (Dingane)
kill your king (Mbopa)
please
for letting you live
stab your
             

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 42.Mbopa Stabs Shaka 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28294
Price on request

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: 43.Shaka Lies Untouched 18/225
Size: 44 x 28 cm
Media: Woodblock
ID: 28295
Price on request
Cecil Skotnes
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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: Untitled '87 22/50
Size: 67 x 57 cm
Media: Lithograph
ID: 18168
Price: R 4 500 Unframed

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Artist: CECIL SKOTNES
Title: Untitled 59/60
Size: 120 by 60 cm
Media: Woodcut
SOLD
             

Shaka son of Senzangakona
of Nandi
Zulu
successor of Dingiswayo
shelter of men

women children
people of thunder
struck

 

 

 

 

       
             

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