Weekly Interview: John Dennan (Printed Jan. 18, 2008)
By Stowell P. Watters
Staff Writer
An upcoming exhibit at the Heartwood College of Art in Kennebunk will feature unique baskets made in South Africa by the Zulu, Swazi and Xhosa tribes. The baskets, collected by John and Indrani Dennan of Harpswell, reflect the art and culture of the tribes but also, John Dennan explained, the need for assistance in Africa.
“These people are struggling with poverty, AIDS and hunger. Artistry and craft are a way Africans can be empowered,” John Dennan said.
He spent 35 years in South Africa where, from 1948 to 1993, an apartheid, meaning any system or law that seprates people based on their class or race, enforced by the National Party of South Africa legalized complete racial segregation, he said. At the age of 25 he owned a piston-manufacturing plant in Durban, the site of the largest Indian expatriate community in the world, Dennan said. This is where he met Indrani Dennan, herself an expatriate from India.
“She walked in and I hired her on the spot, I don’t even think I asked her if she could read or write,” he said.
After a short time Dennan realized he could not have a love affair with someone in his employ, so he and Indrani Dennan opened a business in Durban. The Hungry Hermit was a theater, restaurant and art gallery rolled into one, and Dennan made Indrani Dennan his official business partner – a move forbidden by the apartheid law.
“We were the first business of its kind to be open to all races,” he said.
Through the couples’ experiences in South Africa involving intense racial segregation, poverty and disease and their combined love of art they gathered an immense collection of works from artists throughout Africa that Dennan called “reflective of both the strife and beauty of Africa.” While they both do collecting, Indrani Dennan called her husband the “primary collector.”
In Africa, art and music reflects geography, Dennan said. For example, he said, in western Africa there are massive hardwood trees that can be used for the construction of hand drums and elaborate wooden masks. In the Dennan collection these masks help make up the thousands of pieces that Dennan estimated “could fill three of these rooms,” speaking of a coffee shop the size of two squash courts.
The Zambezi river, one of the longest in Africa – stumped only by the Nile – provides the Shona and Matabele tribes with giant felled hardwood trees which, after cascading over Victoria Falls, become petrified into what Dennan called “ironwood,” used by these two tribes for intricate carvings.
The baskets on display at Heartwood are from KwaZulu Natal, the province in Africa in which Dennan grew up and met Indrani Dennan. Durban is both the capital and largest city in the province, and is where the baskets are traded and sold.
“Sadly the art and craft culture is being lost as people are struggling with AIDS and poverty, they just have other things to worry about. I hope that our continuing to collect these baskets and other art forms will help preserve the culture by providing empowerment to these people,” Indrani Dennan said.
Some of these baskets, according Dennan, are made for everyday use. Small bowl-shaped baskets, called ‘imenge’ or ‘unyazi’ are used for serving cooked millet or corn. They are made from soft woven grasses harvested by the Zulu, Swazi and Xhosa tribes, he said.
Also in the couple’s collection – some of which are sold at their store “Indrani Dennan’s” in Brunswick – are larger baskets used for making beer. Made from the foloile of the ilala palm, which grows along the coast of southern Africa, these baskets operate much like a modern fermentation tank. The fibers of the grasses absorb the liquid as fermentation begins – causing the basket to swell and seal the liquid inside.
Dennan visits South Africa at least once a year either for his own interest or with the Rotary International District 7780 in Maine. Throughout he and Indrani Dennan’s Rotarian service the couple have been a part of the construction of an entire outside deck added to St. Mary’s Hospital in South Africa which now gives healthy orphans a place to safely play without having to be in close contact with the sick children of the adjacent ward.
Their district has also contributed $30,000 worth of sewing machines to craftsmen in the region along with toys for the children of St. Mary’s and a total of $1 million toward what Dennan called “serious sustainable projects from AIDS prevention education, to medical kits to community outreach programs.” Mainers also provided $150,000 to build a ‘palliative’ care, or ‘end of life’ ward at St. Mary’s so people struggling with disease can live their last days in comfort and peace, instead of hungry and without shelter. Dennan said the average stay in that ward is approximately 130 hours.
“For me this is all real, I grew up there I know what is happening. But what really moves me is the ability of Mainers, of people so detached from these humanitarian issues, to make that leap and give their time,” Dennan said.
The exhibit, now in its third annual showing at Heartwood, will open Jan. 21 at 4:30 p.m. To learn more about the humanitarian crisis in South African visit www.stmarys.co.za.
To contact Stowell P. Watters, call 282-4337 ext. 219 or email news@kennebunkpost.com.
Staff Writer
An upcoming exhibit at the Heartwood College of Art in Kennebunk will feature unique baskets made in South Africa by the Zulu, Swazi and Xhosa tribes. The baskets, collected by John and Indrani Dennan of Harpswell, reflect the art and culture of the tribes but also, John Dennan explained, the need for assistance in Africa.
“These people are struggling with poverty, AIDS and hunger. Artistry and craft are a way Africans can be empowered,” John Dennan said.
He spent 35 years in South Africa where, from 1948 to 1993, an apartheid, meaning any system or law that seprates people based on their class or race, enforced by the National Party of South Africa legalized complete racial segregation, he said. At the age of 25 he owned a piston-manufacturing plant in Durban, the site of the largest Indian expatriate community in the world, Dennan said. This is where he met Indrani Dennan, herself an expatriate from India.
“She walked in and I hired her on the spot, I don’t even think I asked her if she could read or write,” he said.
After a short time Dennan realized he could not have a love affair with someone in his employ, so he and Indrani Dennan opened a business in Durban. The Hungry Hermit was a theater, restaurant and art gallery rolled into one, and Dennan made Indrani Dennan his official business partner – a move forbidden by the apartheid law.
“We were the first business of its kind to be open to all races,” he said.
Through the couples’ experiences in South Africa involving intense racial segregation, poverty and disease and their combined love of art they gathered an immense collection of works from artists throughout Africa that Dennan called “reflective of both the strife and beauty of Africa.” While they both do collecting, Indrani Dennan called her husband the “primary collector.”
In Africa, art and music reflects geography, Dennan said. For example, he said, in western Africa there are massive hardwood trees that can be used for the construction of hand drums and elaborate wooden masks. In the Dennan collection these masks help make up the thousands of pieces that Dennan estimated “could fill three of these rooms,” speaking of a coffee shop the size of two squash courts.
The Zambezi river, one of the longest in Africa – stumped only by the Nile – provides the Shona and Matabele tribes with giant felled hardwood trees which, after cascading over Victoria Falls, become petrified into what Dennan called “ironwood,” used by these two tribes for intricate carvings.
The baskets on display at Heartwood are from KwaZulu Natal, the province in Africa in which Dennan grew up and met Indrani Dennan. Durban is both the capital and largest city in the province, and is where the baskets are traded and sold.
“Sadly the art and craft culture is being lost as people are struggling with AIDS and poverty, they just have other things to worry about. I hope that our continuing to collect these baskets and other art forms will help preserve the culture by providing empowerment to these people,” Indrani Dennan said.
Some of these baskets, according Dennan, are made for everyday use. Small bowl-shaped baskets, called ‘imenge’ or ‘unyazi’ are used for serving cooked millet or corn. They are made from soft woven grasses harvested by the Zulu, Swazi and Xhosa tribes, he said.
Also in the couple’s collection – some of which are sold at their store “Indrani Dennan’s” in Brunswick – are larger baskets used for making beer. Made from the foloile of the ilala palm, which grows along the coast of southern Africa, these baskets operate much like a modern fermentation tank. The fibers of the grasses absorb the liquid as fermentation begins – causing the basket to swell and seal the liquid inside.
Dennan visits South Africa at least once a year either for his own interest or with the Rotary International District 7780 in Maine. Throughout he and Indrani Dennan’s Rotarian service the couple have been a part of the construction of an entire outside deck added to St. Mary’s Hospital in South Africa which now gives healthy orphans a place to safely play without having to be in close contact with the sick children of the adjacent ward.
Their district has also contributed $30,000 worth of sewing machines to craftsmen in the region along with toys for the children of St. Mary’s and a total of $1 million toward what Dennan called “serious sustainable projects from AIDS prevention education, to medical kits to community outreach programs.” Mainers also provided $150,000 to build a ‘palliative’ care, or ‘end of life’ ward at St. Mary’s so people struggling with disease can live their last days in comfort and peace, instead of hungry and without shelter. Dennan said the average stay in that ward is approximately 130 hours.
“For me this is all real, I grew up there I know what is happening. But what really moves me is the ability of Mainers, of people so detached from these humanitarian issues, to make that leap and give their time,” Dennan said.
The exhibit, now in its third annual showing at Heartwood, will open Jan. 21 at 4:30 p.m. To learn more about the humanitarian crisis in South African visit www.stmarys.co.za.
To contact Stowell P. Watters, call 282-4337 ext. 219 or email news@kennebunkpost.com.
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