User:Catpritchard/sandbox

Early Life
He was the fifth child of Rebecca and Titus Pemba. Pemba attended Van der Kemp Mission Primary School until 1924 when he won the Grey Scholarship to attend Paterson Secondary School.

His father was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1928.

At Lovedale, Pemba produced illustrations for books published by the Lovedale Press and was mentored by Reverend R. H. W. Shepherd, the last ordained Principal of Lovedale.

In 1935, Pemba took up a teaching post at the Wesleyan Mission School in King William's Town. He left teaching after seven years to take up a better-paid job as messenger of the Native Commissioner's Court, and then as a rent collector for the Township Administration

It was at Maurice van Essche's studio in Cape Town where he met Gerard Sekoto and John Mohl. Sekoto encouraged him to change his medium from watercolour to oils. He travelled to Johannesburg, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, Umtata and Basutoland painting portraits of the indigenous peoples he met in the different regions.

Career
Pemba's first work was first exhibited at the Feather Market Hall in Port Elizabeth in 1928, when he was sixteen. In 1934, Pemba was treated for a burst appendix and he spent his hospital stay drawing pictures of nurses and doctors. In 1937, Pemba received first prize in the May Esther Bedford Competition where the musician and artist Gerard Sekoto received second prize. His first commission came in 1950, in the form of a portrait of the educator and activist, Professor Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu for the University of Fort Hare. .

Pemba produced a satirical cartoon for the first edition of the African National Congress' newspaper Isizwe released in June 1959.

Pemba, was also a writer, who wrote and staged at least two plays - The Story of Nongqawuse and The Xhosa Prophet Ntsikana.

Recognition and awards
Pemba's paintings are noted for their composition and their bold use of colour. He is recognised as a pioneer of Township Art.Today, Pemba is recognised as a pioneer of social realism in South Africa.

In 1995, Barry Feinberg produced a documentary on Pemba called George Pemba: A Painter of the People in collaboration with the Mayibuye Centre for History and Culture.


 * In 1996, the Iziko South African National Gallery held a retrospective of his work, entitled The George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba Retrospective Exhibition.
 * In 2004, the South African Government awarded Pemba with The Order of Ikhamanga in Gold posthumously for his contribution to art and literature.
 * In 2012, on the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth, the South African Post Office released a set of 10 commemorative stamps featuring some of Pemba’s best-know artworks. 300 000 miniature stamp sheets were printed and distributed..
 * In 2017, an exhibition of Pemba's work was hosted at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum.

Personal Life
He was married to Eunice Nombeka (5 May 1918 – 30 August 1984) and they had eight children before she died after 47 years of marriage. They ran a spaza shop called Gabby's Store to support their family, supplement their income and also maintain George Pemba’s painting career.

On 12 July 2001, Pemba died at his home in New Brighton, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape.