TO THOSE ACCUSTOMED to seeing European depictions of the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, a picture currently (May 2025) on display at the SOAS Gallery in London’s Bloomsbury might come as a surprise.

In 1958, the Ugandan artist Francis Musango (1932-2005) painted his “Birth of Christ”. Set in a luxuriant tropical landscape, everyone in the manger where Jesus is lying has a black African face. When I saw this painting yesterday, 8 May 2025, it was the first time I had seen a Nativity scene in which all the people are Africans. Jesus was born in what is now the Middle East, yet in many European depictions of this historic birth, the faces of the people in them have European rather than Semitic physiognomies. So, it is perhaps not so surprising that an African artist should have chosen to populate his Nativity scene with people who look African rather than Semitic.

Musango is not an artist whom I have come across before. So here is something about him on the SOAS website:

“Francis Musango trained as a teacher and also joined the religious order of ‘The Brothers of Christian Instruction’. In 1954 he gained a scholarship to the school of art at Makerere University, where he studied under Trowell’s tutelage. Subsequently he worked as an art educator in Kitovu and later as Inspector of Schools, Arts and Crafts (1970-77), promoting art in the Ugandan curriculum. He became a lecturer at the Makerere School of Art in 1977 and head of department from 1986 to 1988.”