A colourful and moving farewell for artist Mazola

On the afternoon of Saturday January 17, Lecture Theatre 49 at the University of Technology Jamaica (UTech) was filled for nearly two hours with colourfully dressed members of the creative industry, alongside UTech’s principal, Dr Kevin Brown, the daughters, friends and associates of Mazola wa Mwashighadi.

They had gathered to honour the life of the Kenya-born, naturalised Jamaican sculptor and educator, who was killed during a home invasion at his Treasure Beach home in St Elizabeth on December 5 last year, where he had been living since 2022.

At the front of the room stood a modest altar, its centrepiece a framed headshot of Mazola by The Art Centre. Drums, floral arrangements, and several artworks surrounded it, including a piece by Michael Elliot, a former neighbour and friend, inspired by Mazola’s passing.

The memorial unfolded as a carefully composed blend of song, prayer, drumming, and reflection. Aidan Rampair, a Campion College student, provided saxophone interludes. In eulogies and tributes, speaker after speaker spoke of Mazola’s calmness, kindness, and wisdom, as well as his wit and talent. The atmosphere was often heavy with emotion as those present struggled to accept that the father of three was gone.

At the centre of the gathering were his daughters: Meloddi Mazola, born in Kenya and once resident in Jamaica, and Maguwa Wamszola, a grade 11 student at Queen’s School.

In her eulogy, Meloddi described her father as “a multi talented artist whose expressions varied in his use of found objects and a variety of materials … He continued to teach both the young and old throughout his life. While preparing for a healing workshop for his community in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, following Hurricane Melissa, he lost his life tragically … We will forever remember the warmth and love that Mazola exuded as evidenced in his relationships with his family, children, friends, and the larger art community. May he rest in eternal peace.”

A COLLECTIVE LOSS

She also read a tribute from her brother, Rodney Mazola, who lives in Kenya. In it, he wrote: “So here I am, at an ungodly hour, trying to find the words to say to you. But although I don’t have any, I can assure you that goodbye is not one of them.”

“Thank you for the light and hope you constantly tried to shine in a world filled with darkness and despair, and now that God has called you back home, I hope He allows you to use the sky as your canvas. It’s an infinite one, so I know you’ll enjoy it. So paint the sky, Dad. Paint the sky, knowing that you have me, and I have them. Just like you always dreamed it would be.”

Wamszola’s tribute, delivered in a reflective and poetic register, explored her father’s inner life and creative spirit. She read: “As he was, a light presence spilling, himself. Filling the spaces between, what was and what could be, he imagined himself. His inner child carved Mazola out of wood, the grain facing, even imitating the coil, difference and significance of his locks. Tightly coiled, they spoke to him. Despite being told they would never grow, just as a bougainvillea’s root firmly settled in the narrow roots, he widened them. He widened life … .”

“Through him we have become one. These memories, ingrained upon me like a child’s first knowing of a burning disdain for broccoli, tomatoes, perhaps, even peas, and in this breath, I realise my capacity to feel the presence of my father, confined to my pulse. I realise a river runs in me, with stones that scatter, wilt insight of life, one that brushes my clothes as I tread, barefoot, I stand reaching towards my father despite the seas I walk on.”

Additional tributes came from members of the Treasure Beach community, fellow artisans, former students, and the National Gallery of Jamaica’s chief curator, O’Neil Lawrence. Visibly moved, Marcia Adams – a former student and creative – said: “It was, and still is, a great honour meeting Mr Mazola. He was very loving, caring, adorable, humorous, a person who had so much love and honour for life. In my entire 46 years on Earth, I have never encountered anyone, not even a family member, who had such great love for life.”

Charl Baker, another multidisciplinary artist and close friend, added through tears: “The student, the father, the friend, the artist, the mentor, the griot, the teacher, the sage, and now the ancestor we all know as Mazola. He was so many things to so many of us … And I can honestly say I have been changed by the tragic sudden loss of this peaceful, calm, gentle soul we all know and love.”

Following the formal programme, attendees moved to the Sculpture Park, where flowers were laid at the base of one of Mazola’s works. Plans are under way to repatriate his body to Kenya.

editorial@gleanerjm.com