Beyond the Festival: A Kenyan Artist’s Journey in Makhanda
- activateeditor
- Nov 1
- 4 min read
By Buhle Malgas
When the bright lights of the National Arts Festival dim each July, Makhanda often goes back into its quieter rhythm. For many artists, the festival is a fleeting stage, a chance to showcase, sell, and return home until the next season. But for Mario, a Kenyan artist who arrived in June with dreams as vibrant as the characters he paints, the story did not end when the festival did. Mario’s paintings never even made it into the festival halls. Due to logistical hiccups, his pieces couldn’t be brought in on time. For most, this would have been a crushing setback. Months of preparation, money spent, and anticipation all gone in an instant. But instead of packing his bags and returning to Kenya, Mario chose to stay. He has remained in Makhanda ever since, finding new ways to share his work not on festival walls, but on sidewalks, shopfronts, and public corners.
The National Arts Festival is one of the biggest festivals celebrated annually in Makhanda. For 11 days, Makhanda becomes a hub of music, theatre, dance, and visual art. Crowds fill the streets, and artists from in and out of the country showcase their creativity. But when the festival ends, the energy dies down quickly. For most, the applause fades into memory, and artists scatter back to their homes. Mario’s decision to stay challenges that cycle. He represents a different story: one of resilience beyond the spotlight. In doing so, he’s also shining a light on the invisible side of artistry, the survival, the hustle, and the determination it takes to keep going when the audience has moved on. With no gallery space to call his own, Mario had to adapt.
He took to the streets with his artwork, displaying his characters under the open sky. He began signwriting for local shops, painting characters and animals, designing colourful patterns, and leaving his creative imprint on Makhanda’s small businesses. Mario survives this way, one brushstroke at a time. His paintings are often of characters full of life, spirit, and emotion. They are not just portraits, but stories painted in colour. “I like people to see themselves in my art,” Mario explains.
Among his favourite works is a portrait of Lupita Nyong’o, the Kenyan Mexican actress who won international acclaim for her role in 12 Years a Slave. Her story, Mario says, is one of deep inspiration. “Lupita inspires me because when she first went for auditions in Hollywood, people told her she was too dark,” he explains. “She didn’t give up, and today she’s one of the most celebrated actresses. If she had given up, the world would never have seen her talent. For me, her story is a reminder that people shouldn’t be judged or discriminated against for their skin colour, their hair, or their accent. Everyone deserves the chance to shine.”
In Mario’s hands, Lupita is not just a Hollywood star. She is a symbol of resilience, of representation, of the courage to persist even when others doubt you. Through her image, he sends a message that mirrors his own journey in Makhanda: staying, creating, and surviving, despite setbacks. Mario’s art speaks to bigger issues too, such as colourism, identity, and the value of African creativity in a world that often dismisses it. His decision to draw Lupita is not accidental. It is political as much as it is personal. By painting her, he affirms the beauty of dark skin, African features, and accents often ridiculed or ignored. His work is not confined to galleries or elite audiences. They are on the walls of small shops, on the pavement where passersby stop to watch, and in the conversations, he sparks with strangers. This is art as life, not distant or untouchable, but woven into the everyday.
Mario’s story is also a reminder that the National Arts Festival, as grand as it is, does not capture the full reality of artistic life. Festivals celebrate art in its polished form, but the struggle and survival that follow are often invisible. Mario embodies that “beyond” what happens after the stage, when the lights go off and the crowd goes home. By staying in Makhanda, he has turned the town into a living festival of his own. His work lingers long after the official program ended, and in that way, he has given something more lasting to the community: a reminder that art is not just an event, but a way of seeing and surviving.
Four months after arriving, Mario still walks the streets with his paintings. Sometimes he paints for money, other times just to inspire. His presence is quiet but powerful, a reminder that art does not need a grand stage to matter. The National Arts Festival brings artists like Mario to South Africa, but his decision to stay, to keep creating even when no one is clapping, reveals a deeper truth that art endures, even in the face of disappointment. And in Mario’s case, it does more than endure. It thrives, transforms, and leaves its mark on every corner of Makhanda.
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