Malangatana: The Eye of the Crocodile
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
- Venue
- JCR Bar, SOAS campus
- Event type
- Alumni reception
About this event
You are warmly invited to Malangatana: The Eye of the Crocodile, an event honouring the publication of the first major book dedicated to Malangatana, the pioneering force of African Modernist art.
Authored by alumnus Richard Gray (PhD, History of Art and Archaeology, 2023), this landmark work offers a fresh and deeply researched perspective on one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
Born in Mozambique, Malangatana (1936–2011) stands alongside his peers featured in the popular exhibition Nigerian Modernism, now at Tate Modern.
Join us as we celebrate this book's contribution to art history and the legacy of Malangatana’s extraordinary vision.
Poet Mbeke Waseme and storyteller Usifu Jalloh, the Cowfoot Prince, will join Richard on the programme.
This event is free and open to all alumni and friends of SOAS.
About the Author
Richard Gray is the author of Malangatana: The Eye of the Crocodile (Galda Verlag, 2025), the first full-length book about Malangatana. It was developed from his Ph.D. thesis (University of London, SOAS, 2023).
Previously, Gray has been a teacher, community publisher and people’s historian. He was a cooperante internacionalista in revolutionary Mozambique (1977–81). This involved participating with Malangatana in a national campaign to reclaim Mozambican history and culture from the effects of Portuguese colonialism.
Gray’s longstanding relationship with Malangatana and his family has informed his subsequent research. In 1990, for example, he was employed as researcher on the film, Homelands: Malangatana, commissioned by the BBC’s Arena programme.
