Qhomatca XGAIGA (late 1940s – 2025)

BIOGRAPHY

Xgaiga Qhomatca was born on the farm Uitkoms in the Ghanzi district of Botswana. He grew up in a family of eight children and worked as a farm labourer from a young age, herding cattle and tending gardens. He never attended formal schooling.

Quomatca was well known for his knowledge of the veld and San/Bushman culture. He was fine performer and instructor of the traditional games, dances and music of the Naro San. He remembered seeing herds of springbok, gemsbok and giraffe on the farms, where today there is only an occasional kudu to be seen. He also encountered lions and leopards, and sometimes when it rained heavily, elephants would wander down from Lake Ngami into the Ghanzi farming area.

Along with his wife Ncg’abe Taase, Qhomatca was a member of the Kuru Art Project. He joined the art project in 1997, working with oil on canvas, but was soon introduced to the lino printing technique, becoming an expert in colour reduction lino prints.

He was chosen as one of four Kuru artists to attend a printmaking workshop, together with some Native American artists, at the Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico in July 1999.

SOURCE
‘Xgaiga Qhomatca,’ The Artists’ Press, https://www.artprintsa.com/xgaiga-qhomatca.html.