Tam Joseph
Whilst
we might regard his oeuvre as being somewhat eclectic, nevertheless we should
be clear and understand that in his time, Tam Joseph has contributed a number
of memorable paintings that locate themselves at the centre of social and
political commentary, often doing so in ways that reflect the artist’s
characteristic wit, humour and perceptiveness. Typical in this regard are
paintings such as ‘Spirit of the Carnival’ and ‘UK School
Report’ for which Joseph is widely respected. The latter piece (dating
from 1983) sub-divided into three portraits, shows the passage of a Black
youngster through the British education system. Though unambiguously witty,
the painting effectively addresses the miserable experiences of many Black
youngsters at school. Within the first portrait, the neat and tidy lad is
reported as being ‘good at sports’. In the second portrait,
the best that his teachers can say about him is that he ‘likes music’.
The third report is perhaps inevitable: a few years of under-achievement,
alienation and disaffection have rendered him a problem, a youth with perceived
delinquent tendencies and ambitions. As such, the sullen youth depicted
now ‘needs surveillance’.
For
a Black boy to be prejudicially labelled ‘Good at sports’ links
that child to that almost primeval strand of racism that frequently suggests
and sometimes insists that Black people are more physical than they are
mental. That whatever skills they posses lie not in any intellectual abilities,
but in their physical endeavours. ‘UK School Report’ laments
the ways in which educational aspirations have been choked off, in favour
of supposedly inevitable athletic excellence. Like Tam Joseph before him,
Macka B had the measure of the education system’s treatment of Black
youngsters when he sang:
“When a child says he wants to do O level Maths
And the teacher will say no and give that child a cricket bat
Or sen’ him ‘pon the field fi run a couple of lap
‘Cause they know he will do better running on the race track”
(2)