Publications

Twenty years in Lesotho

By: Graham Taylor

Graham Taylor gives a personal account of his experience of setting up an educational initiative during his time living in Africa.

In 1980 my wife Lynda and I were offered a two-year contract to run Kolonyama Pottery Studio, in Lesotho, Southern Africa. We didn't know it at the time, but we would only return to our native Northumbria in 2000. What kept us there so long was largely a fascination with the projects, the people, and the country, but also a growing belief that something needed to change in the way the West dealt with African art and culture and that we could, perhaps, make a difference. We saw that many of the international aid projects operated on a boom and bust system. With odd notable exceptions, 'experts' were brought in and local people employed and taught their part in the art production line. Initially, this would produce reasonable quality products, but after a couple of years the expert would be replaced by a local manager trained for the purpose. Managers that are any good at their job usually want a better return on their effort than the arts can offer and move on to more lucrative industrial or retail posts, meaning projects can lose direction and impetus and collapse within a couple of years. What seemed to have been missed was that art businesses, like most things, grow from the...

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