artist interview Reimagining Our Missing Histories Eria Nsubuga SANE1 and Sikhumbuzo Makandula in Conversational Partnership Sikhumbuzo Makandula and Eria Nsubuga All images are courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted

hile an interview could be described as some cases, our stupidities. Uganda is a unique place where the a view among, between, betwixt, or in elite expose the highest disregard for creativity and revel in their the midst of two subjects—from s’e nt re - ignorance of all things creative. As such, I nd it imperative to voir (see each other); entre (between) discuss the status quo in which politicians divide up the spoils of and vue (view)—many interviews in the country with reckless abandon while the ignorant elite either art history are hier archical not only in cheer on or participate in the process of self-cannibalization. the sense of an interviewer “authoring” the material received from e artist’s role is to expose nakedness. In many ways our his- theW respondent, but also in the sense of the theorist or writer shap- tory is like a form of nakedness—nakedness hidden in the dark. ing the ideas of the practitioner. As discussed in the First Word, Darkness may obscure information but it also makes possible “Situating Africa,” there is a tendency for writers in the “north” to the nuances of interpretation as well as the interesting possibility theorize the professional practice of artists in the “south,” develop- of transforming into the present or the future. e past—when ing what Gordon Lewis () refers to as a geography of reason. exposed—is able to mutate its meanings and contexts. While the In their book Qualitative Interviewing: e Art of Hearing Data, past can be viewed as sacred (in the sense of the sacrosanctity of a Herbert J. Rubin and Irene S. Rubin ( : ) develop the term “con- parent’s nudity), in other ways it allows one who is brave enough versational partnership” to describe two or more participants who to look at it with scrutiny to discover what the past itself has hid- play an active role in shaping content as they cocreate meaning. den in the dark. Exposure becomes the present, and obsession is conversational partnership between two artists—one based with the present can obstruct what the present should see about in Uganda and the other based in South Africa—developed out of the past. e concept of “nakedness in the dark” interests me, the publishing workshop at Rhodes University in June  , which because I do what I may otherwise not do when exposed to light. aimed to approach the creation of knowledge from the perspec- SIKHUMBUZO: In our discussion about your artwork you tive of “sideways learning” (see “Reaching Sideways, Writing Our stated, “I am not a pessimist.” I nd this statement interesting. Ways” in this issue). —Ruth Simbao What propels you to say this? SANE: I say that I am not a pessimist because many people SIKHUMBUZO: SANE, in your view, what is the role of an have called me a prophet of doom for Uganda. In this country, any artist within your context in Uganda? dissenting voice is referred to as adui—the enemy. I have several SANE: An artist can remind us of our own humanity and, in narratives running concurrently in my work, and what has driven my artistic practice in recent years has been outrage. I think some- thing has gone horribly wrong in Uganda as a whole, but I also S  M (BFA) is an artist and researcher who par- believe that we are not on the precipice of disaster. I think we can ticipates in the Arts of Africa and the Global South Research Programme correct the underlying problems if we wake up now. I recently at Rhodes University in South Africa. His recent exhibition “Ubuzwe” attended a conference in Minerva Art Academy, Hanzehogeschool, (2016) was displayed at the Albany History Museum in Grahamstown. that was themed “Being Political in Art and Design” and focused [email protected]. on the concept of “truthfully telling it as it is with courage.” A num- E  N, also known as SANE, is a Lecturer in Painting at Uganda ber of presenters discussed the distinction between the theory of Christian University in Mukono Town, Uganda, and a PhD candidate in parrhesia (truth saying) in art and the practice of parrhesia in art. practice-based Fine Art at Winchester School of Art, University of South- I oen need courage to say what I am saying against the backdrop ampton, United Kingdom. His art career and scholarship are driven by of a society that is lying naked in the dark. subjects of power, politics, race, and invisibility. [email protected]. SIKHUMBUZO: During your recent participation in the

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 1 Eria Nsubuga SANE and Eric Mukalazi market seems closed to the majority of people, and the power Abanene: The Chronicles (2013), Part I Video still play of global curators is, as Ugandan artist Henry Mujunga The artist is portrayed at Afriart Gallery waiting for Mzili suggests, a “politics of exclusion.” Little appears to happen Kimberly Bryant, the character of the American curator. here until a voice from the “outside” appears, and when things do happen they tend to follow the neo-neoliberal line of thought in which everything must make a prot. Support for Ugandan artists is minimal and our public visibility is delicate, hence my attempt to create alternative ways to entomb creative work in the publishing workshop at Rhodes University you screened Part public mind. I of an animation video titled Abanene ( ) (Figs. –) that I express my anger about this lack of support in the painting you produced with Eric Mukalazi. In this video you engage with Art for Art’s Sake, Money for God’s Sake ( ) (Fig.  ), which stereo types of Western curators and explore the ways in which draws from the story in e East African about the death of they interact with local artists, as well as their preconceptions of renowned, yet destitute, Ugandan artist Expeditto Mwebe. what a gallery space should be. Can you elaborate on the rela- e disillusionment and disappointment that many artists like tionship between Western curators and Ugandan artists and Mwebe in Uganda and East Africa endure is made all the more comment on issues of accessibility in terms of the Ugandan art glaring when juxtaposed against the dreams that the artists have market? of making money and being successful and inuential members SANE: In some ways international curators are useful, as they of their societies. Why can’t we make art for art’s sake, and make can improve our visibility on the African continent and beyond. money for God’s sake? However, as expressed in this animation video, in which the SIKHUMBUZO: You recently exhibited some of your draw- American curator is played by Kimberly Bryant and I am the ings at the  Johannesburg Art Fair, which focused on artists character of the artist, I am somewhat hesitant when approached and artworks from East Africa. e graphite texture of these by curators because of the likelihood for disappointment. In this drawings (Figs. –) has a photographic grading. In what way is work, the boda boda driver, who is an everyday person on the this texture and photographic grading linked to the study materi- street, fails to recognize what a contemporary art gallery is and als you used in order to conceptualize your drawings and develop he drives the curator to the National eatre cra village instead, the nal image? allowing room for the redenition of what a gallery might be in SANE: In my process I examine and print many images of Uganda. e artist waits for the curator, but she never appears. public characters that I collect from newspapers, magazines, My reservation is partly based on the lack of infrastructure in and the Internet, and I constantly store away interesting head- Uganda to deal with the rigor and scrutiny required to empower lines. I am drawn to gaps created by pixelated images as well as the artist and the curator in a mutual way and hence the prob- to the connection between photographs printed on newsprint ability for an imbalance of power in this relationship. I’m not and the accompanying text. Gaps leave room for intervention interested in the vain politics of art placement in the West, as this and interpretation, and the relationship between image and text

VOL. 50, NO. 2 SUMMER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 | 2 Eria Nsubuga SANE and Eric Mukalazi Abanene: The Chronicles (2013), Part I Video still The boda boda driver transports the American curator to the craft village instead of Afriart Gallery where the artist awaits.

3 Eria Nsubuga SANE and Eric Mukalazi Abanene: The Chronicles (2013), Part I Video still The American curator realizes that the boda boda driver has dropped her at the National Theatre craft village instead of the contemporary gallery, Afriart.

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 creates a backdrop for my visual narratives. e newspaper text Mwenda (on the le), is portrayed in the drawing as her compan- surrounding the image continues to speak to the viewer, even if ion and protector. e goat head and the goat feet suggest that the only subliminally. I also love strong contrasts of black and white characters are fraught and corrupt, as Biblical accounts portray in these found images. e heavy black shade doesn’t just block goats as doomed to destruction. e reference to goats in this light but it also has textured, layered lines that speak a language work reveals my anger towards politicians in Uganda, especially of their own. Members of Parliament, and the notion of decapitation is not SIKHUMBUZO: Your drawing titled Muhanga’s Goats and straightforward. Rather than simply representing the physical a Wedding reminds me of e Madonna of Mercy with Kneeling violence of cutting o heads, decapitation symbolizes an attempt Friars by Fra Angelico, an Italian painter of the early Renaissance. to disembody the underlying faults in ourselves and to dissect What informs the religious iconography and the interplay of the our feeble humanness. In drawings such as Muteesa Legacies (Fig. animalistic caricature in this drawing? is question is posed in ) and It Is Parliament Taking National eatre Land (Fig. ), I light of the facial expressions of some of the characters in your similarly portray a number of decapitated gures. drawing, who appear to be shocked by a public matrimony. SIKHUMBUZO: Some of your drawings such as Muteesa’s SANE: is drawing, Muhanga’s Goats and a Wedding (Fig. ), Present Company () (Fig. ), Muteesa Legacies () (Fig. ) critiques the idea that Western classicism is viewed as the Utopian Kabaka Mukaabya Mutesa I and I (Memories We Stole) (Fig. ), target for artistic and spiritual expression. e wedding scene is and It Is Parliament Taking National eatre Land () (Fig. ) constructed through the use of a found image whose owner I do seem to manifest as a visual critique of tribalism and nativism, as not know, but which I distorted in Photoshop. e woman on well as euphemisms for Uganda’s political elite. Can you explain the right depicts a Member of Parliament who bought govern- what inspired these drawings? ment land belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation SANE: I bear little respect for the political classes in Uganda, with cash amounting to about three million dollars. When and dealing with a subject I like but whose current players I do this woman, Margaret Muhanga, was asked in a Parliamentary not trust, I oen resort to mockery or satire. In Muteesa’s Present Committee Session where she found the money to make such a Company, I portray my interpretation of what the world might transaction, she thoughtlessly replied that she sold her cows and look like if past principals collided with their present equals. I goats and borrowed money from relatives. Her brother, Andrew wonder, for instance, what Muteesa I Mukaabya Walugembe, who was the kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda from  to , would think of his own legacy if he were to time travel into the present day. Would he enjoy Uganda’s current political sit- uation? Would he applaud or object to corruption? Would he simply be a purveyor of it like the present ruling class? In this drawing I also portray myself as a character who appears to be 4 Eria Nsubuga SANE and Eric Mukalazi Abanene: The Chronicles (2013), Part I playful and lighthearted. However, I doubt that Muteesa I would Video still enjoy me sitting on his shoulders. In fact, some Baganda might

VOL. 50, NO. 2 SUMMER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 | my opinion, Baganda people generally do not like to dig up the past, but in refusing to engage with the past a lot of things remain untold, injustices remain unmitigated, and the past remains dead. I do not believe in a dead past but in a living past, which bears the repository of memory itself. So, in a way, my work steals some part of the memory of the past and uses it to look not only at the present but also at a revisited and reimagined past as a way of grappling with missing histories. SIKHUMBUZO: Some of your recent paintings such as Wine Tests () (Fig. ), Art for Art’s Sake, Money for God’s Sake () (Fig. ), and What Can Europe Do about Migrants? () (Fig. ) are humorous and quirky, political and even melancholic beneath the surface. What drives this humor and melancholy? Is this bal- ance deliberate and, if so, how do you manage to maintain it? SANE: I oscillate from disappointment and anger to hope when I look at my subjects of choice. ey are sticky and dicult things to look at. I need a bit of humor sometimes to depict them honestly. Humor for me shows that there is hope. We can laugh about corruption but the time will come when justice is done. I am hopeful and cynical at the same time. You are right, it is a delicate balance. ings tip over all the time. e impetus for the painting What Can Europe Do about Migrants? was the anger and frustration I felt in  during the migration crisis. Being from the South, I nd it hypocriti- cal and annoying that countries that have invaded Africa and Middle East—bringing about major crises in the name of glo- balization and the export of “democracy”—turn around and complain about problems that have been created by their own policies in the “developing world.” e painting was made at the take exception to this particular image. time when Pope Francis visited Uganda amid unprecedented In my work I produce multiple versions of myself appearing fanfare. (I live near to the Namugongo Martyrs’ Shrine that the as di erent chiefs or pages of the king. is series, Mukaabya’s Pontifex visited.) e typical response to the question “What can Legacies (Figs. –), was inspired by Andrea Stultiens’s invitation you (Europe) do about migrants?” is problematic. e solution to indulge in a single photograph that depicted King Muteesa I is not moving our populations to the “solace” or “comfort” of the and his subjects. In my work I play with the collective memory of North. Instead, Europe needs to stop the excessive meddling and Ugandans, hoping to tickle someone to ask why I chose to depict misguided interventions in internal matters of sovereign coun- the god-king simply as a man—a man with aws and a man who tries in the name of exporting “democracy.” can be judged by history for past actions long aer his death. In SIKHUMBUZO: ere is a strong sense of history that is

5 Eria Nsubuga SANE Muhanga’s Goats and a Wedding (2016) Drawing on chipboard, approx. 55 cm x 45 cm

6 Eria Nsubuga SANE Muteesa’s Present Company (2016) Drawing on newspaper and plywood, , 70 cm x 100 cm

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 7 Eria Nsubanga SANE Muteesa Legacies (2016) Drawing on newspaper and plywood, 30 cm x 40 cm

embedded within many of your drawings and paintings. It is clear the presented image as ‘true’ re ections of the past.” Further, you that you are interested in working with archives, be they photo- ask: “What is the past? And what is the present? Are we always graphic or other forms of documentation, and I read your work as living in the present or the past? What is the dierence?” being about unresolved history, untold lineages, and hidden con- In , you collaborated with the nonprot organization nections. In your article, “Images, Re ections, Objects” for the History in Progress, Uganda (HIPU) on a project entitled online journal Start: Journal of Arts and Culture, you state your Ekifananyi at the Academy Minerva in the Netherlands. What interest in “reinterpreting the history that is presented by photo- was the outcome of that collaboration? graphic and painted images” (Nsubuga ). You argue that in SANE: at exchange began with an idea from Andrea appropriating images you “question or challenge the validity of Stultiens, who is a PhD candidate in the Netherlands and also

8 Eria Nsubuga SANE Kabaka Mukaabya Muteesa I and I (Memories We Stole) (2016) Drawing on board, approx. 27 cm x 35 cm

VOL. 50, NO. 2 SUMMER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 | 9 Eria Nsubanga SANE It Is Parliament Taking National Theatre Land (2016) Drawing on newspaper and canvas, 80 cm x 130 cm

10 Eria Nsubuga SANE Wine Tests (2016) Mixed media, 100 cm x 100 cm

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 11 Eria Nsubuga SANE Art for Art’s Sake, Money for God’s Sake (2016), Mixed media, 100 cm x 100 cm

12 Eria Nsubuga SANE What Can Europe Do about the Migrants? (2015) Mixed media, approx. 140 cm x 90 cm

a lecturer at the Hanzehogeschool, Groningen. She approached pertinent to your work too. For example, in your performance me aer I had done a residency at  Degrees East/Ugandan Arts Ingqumbo (Figs. – ) and your photographic work Ntaba Trust in Kampala in early   to invite me to participate in her kaNdoda (Fig. ) you seem to enter into an ongoing dialogue project on the historical gure Hamu Mukasa. I was interested in with historical sites that need to be reimagined in a present this gure because of his connection with the Uganda Christian time. Can you elaborate on your dialogue with the past, both University where I teach. Hamu Mukasa donated land to start the in terms of the dialogue you might have with your family or Bishop Tucker eological College, which later became Uganda community and the dialogue you have with your own ancestry? Christian University. He was Kabaka Mwanga’s illiterate page SIKHUMBUZO: As an artist I have an ongoing dialogue with who rose through the ranks and played an important role in the history and my ancestry. With regards to my family, I’m yet to spread of formal education in the Buganda Kingdom and later in have this particular conversation. Most of my family lives in De Uganda’s education system (New Vision  ). Aar in the Northern Cape and Cape Town in the Western Cape, I suggested to Andrea that I would design a painting course, where conversations about family lineage history and ancestry and I asked my students to engage with a list of illustrations that are not prioritized. is dislocation is due to migration to a place Hamu Mukasa proposed for his book Simuda Nyuma, but which that doesn’t associate with or relate to ancestral history, as well were never produced. e students were asked to make visual as to the impact of Christianity and the urbanized environment. impressions or interpretations of these absent illustrations. Several is is one of the reasons I moved to the Eastern Cape region exhibitions developed from this project and the works were dis- where my ancestral lineage originates. played at the gallery at Minerva Art Academy ( ), Framer SANE: Your artwork stresses a strong decolonial aesthetic Framed in Amsterdam ( ), and at the Hamu Mukasa Library that expresses the reality that the “Rainbow Nation” suered a at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda ( ) (Fig. stillbirth and that there is now a need for revolution. Can you ). e notion of absent illustrations links to my broader project respond to this reading of your work? of exposing nakedness and reconstructing the past. SIKHUMBUZO: Your reading of my work is accurate. I was Sikhumbuzo, the examination of missing histories, and the born in the mid- s and growing up in a family of political reconstruction of these histories in the present, seems to be very activists I experienced the last days of ocial apartheid in South

VOL. 50, NO. 2 SUMMER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 | 13 Exhibition of students’ portrayals of Hamu Mukasa’s “absent illustrations” that were initially proposed for his book Simuda Nyuma. Hamu Mukasa Library at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Uganda. Photo: Andrea Stultiens

14: Eria Nsubuga SANE Xenophobia Is No Revolution (2015) Oil on canvas, 140 cm x 80 cm This work comments on the killings in South Africa of migrant workers

Africa. In the early s there were huge tensions amongst polit- ical parties such as the ANC (African National Congress), the PAC (Pan Africanist Congress), and the IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party), and there were ethnic wars that subsequently erupted between amaXhosa and amaZulu in the Johannesburg areas of the East Rand. Experiencing such violence, we now, as a nation, struggle to address what we’ve inherited as part of our history. Politics inuences my work in essential ways as I try to make sense of what constitutes the foundation of South Africa. In my view South Africa adopted a compromised democracy, and we are experiencing a resurgence of protests, continuous violence, and the violation of black bodies by a government that we believed, as citizens of this country, had our best interests at heart. e idea of a “Rainbow Nation” is a fallacy constructed to make the majority of the South African nation believe that all is well. In   I became an active member of Fees Must Fall Movement at Rhodes University and what we, as a movement,

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 15–16 Sikhumbuzo Makandula in collaboration with violinist Christopher Jardine Inggumbo (2016) Performance in front of the St. Michael and St. George Cathedral Photos: Thabiso Mafana

VOL. 50, NO. 2 SUMMER 2017 african arts Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 | 17 Sikhumbuzo Makandula Ukubamba elentulo (2016) Inkjet on Epson UltraSmooth Ed 5+ 2AP, 170 cm x 108 cm

didn’t envisage was the degree of systematic violence awaiting us. be properly positioned in the world of the ancestors. Issues that ese experiences are reected in my artistic practice. In my work I and some of my contemporaries are dealing with are to do with I engage with, for example, historical violence perpetuated by the the self-authorship of our own narratives as we write our own institution that is the church or state apparatus. I harness a visual history by revisiting, remapping, and reimagining our collective language that reects the times I happen to be in as I practice as a identity and social history. visual artist in South Africa and on the African continent. SANE: Can you explain how you revisit, remap, and reimagine SANE: You oen bring performance into your work and some identity and social history in your recent performance Ingqumbo? of it seems to be quite ritualistic—almost like séances sum- SIKHUMBUZO: e performance Ingqumbo (which means moning a dierent kind of consciousness. Can you discuss the “wrath”) grew out of my interest in connecting architectural performance element of your work? spaces in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape to each other, such SIKHUMBUZO: My work is simply an attempt to revisit as the St. Michael and St. George Cathedral and the Drostdy black people’s erased and silenced histories. Importantly the Arch that marks the main entrance to Rhodes University. I con- performances serve as a collective memory in questioning who sulted with two historians, Nomalanga Mkhize and Julia Wells, is remembered and why, and in negotiating spaces and places in order to develop a better understanding of these historical where spirits of those who did not have a proper burial need to spaces. In planning the performance I was also inspired by the

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 18 Sikhumbuzo Makandula Dictator I (2016) Inkjet on Epson Giclee paper, Edition: 6 + 2AP, 42 cm x 59.4 cm

album We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite. My approach re (Fig. ), symbolizing years of systematic violence connected was to lead the audience on a procession, starting at the Cathedral with the institution of the church since the arrival of mission- and walking along High Street to the Drostdy Arch. ese two aries. Another prop which was featured was an articial human architectural facades, both of which have a violent colonial and skull which contained incense used to sage the space, thus tak- missionary history, face each other on opposite ends of High ing away the role of the priest and that of servers. e use of the Street. skull was inspired by Pramesh Lalu’s () book, e Deaths of In the performance I engaged with various sites as I enacted the Hintsa, in which he analyzes the narrative of King Hintsa, also situations of protest, prayer, and coming to peace with the past known as Hintsa ka Khawuta (–), who was killed by the history of architectural sites. e performance started outside British Settlers and whose head was brought to Grahamstown the main entrance of the St. Michael and St. George Cathedral. before it was eventually taken to Britain. Using an okapi knife, I ripped apart the red altar server cassock I then proceeded with the audience to a Settler statue opposite associated with Christianity, which features in many of my per- the Cathedral, which commemorates the Battle of Grahamstown formances and photographs (Fig. ). I then set the garment on in  and signies the spot where Colonel Graham and

19 Sikhumbuzo Makandula Dictator V (2016) Inkjet on Epson Giclee paper, Edition: 6 + 2AP, 42 cm x 59.4 cm

VOL. 50, NO. 2 SUMMER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 | Captain Stockenstrom decided upon the present site of the City 20 Sikhumbuzo Makandula Dictator VIII (2016) of Grahamstown in  . Here I inscribed the words “Nxele, Inkjet on Epson Giclee paper, Edition: 6 + 2AP, Ndlambe, Umhlaba” on the blank side of the statue, registering 42 cm x 59.4 cm that which was occluded from the historical narrative of this statue. Nxele led members of the Ndlambe regiment, who were ghting for their stolen land and were displaced by the British Settlers. e performance ended at the top of High Street by the struggle. In conceptualizing the “Ubuzwe” exhibition (Figs. –), Drostdy Arch, where I hung a noose. Placing the articial skull I approached “facts” not in their crude facticity but through con- beneath the rope I linked the histories of terror and killing of the templation of which facts acquire immediacy and how. rough two sites. Finally, I handed Molotov cocktails to the audience as using historical sites such as monuments and the mountain in the a way to remind viewers/participants about the systematic vio- Eastern Cape named Ntaba ka Ndoda, I have come to learn that lence that characterized our collective history and memory. my Nguni ancestry dates back to   as a result of migration SANE: Looking at your exhibition catalogue titled Ubuzwe, I and trade. realize the commonality in the Bantu ancestry that I, as a Ugandan, Ubuzwe is an isiXhosa word that means a nation, nationhood, share with you, a South African. e title Ubuzwe suggests to me and a sense of belonging. e term is inspired by the writer S.E.K. the state of “being something.” What is this “something”? Mqhayi’s  book Abantu Besizwe (), which narrates the ways SIKHUMBUZO: To declare a state of “being something” in in which a sense of place had tremendous inuence on his patri- South Africa is quite complex, as one might think one has gured otism. In my recent exhibition I unpacked the term ubuzwe to out this “something-ness” and then it turns out not to be the case. try to understand my own sense of place in a post-apartheid For instance I used to believe that I form part of the amaXhosa country. Furthermore it was an attempt to interrogate what we’ve ethnic group or nation, and grappling with this perception is one inherited sociopolitically, given the country’s past history of of the many issues I interrogate in Ubuzwe as I meditate and probe apartheid and colonialism. Importantly, the “Ubuzwe” exhibition the historical and ideological “facts” and “myths” of nationhood. also interrogates how we as South Africans negotiate our social is is in light of how South African people came to be dened identity given that we are still transitioning as a democratic state. and produced through the politics and culture of nationalist SANE: While I sense a commonality in our artwork I am also

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 21–23 Sikhumbuzo Makandula The Promised Land (2016) Inkjet on Epson Giclee paper, Edition: 6 + 2AP, 29.7 cm x 42 cm

VOL. 50, NO. 2 SUMMER 2017 african arts  Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 | reminded of a di erence in the sense that, even when I relate to 24 Sikhumbuzo Makandula Ntaba kaNdoda (2016) your process and your work, I engage with it from my own set of Inkjet on Epson UltraSmooth, (Ed) 6, 120 cm x 120 cm beliefs and interpretations, which are di erent from your expe- riences. We are both from colonial backgrounds but the levels of exploitation and marginalization have probably been higher in the experiences of many South Africans. In my painting Xenophobia Is No Revolution () (Fig. ), I deal with issues of xenophobia from my own perspective, but I am sure that in South Africa are stereotyped and stories are created that impli- xenophobia unravels quite di erently in South Africa. Does this cate them in the stealing of jobs. di erence in the colonial recognition and experience come into As a practicing artist I see it as my duty to challenge these ste- play when questions of xenophobia come up; when black South reotypes. Furthermore, I try to create links with others and to Africans who are likely of Bantu origin attack their immigrant work collaboratively with artists from South Africa and beyond. cousins from the rest of Africa? For example, I recently collaborated with Mo at Takadiwa, SIKHUMBUZO: e Settler colonialists and missionaries a Zimbabwean artist, as part of my solo exhibition, “In Search have done so much damage in the psyches of black people, and of a Nation” (see this issue, p. , Fig. ). In our collaborative it becomes evident especially in South Africa. In this context I performance we explored trade relations between South Africa prefer to use the term Afrophobia instead of xenophobia, as the and Zimbabwe, as well as issues of migration. e time is now attacks a ect only the black immigrants from the rest of Africa. to challenge the status quo of borders that were created by the e current government that is in power has, in my opinion, colonialists in order to divide us as Africans, and we need to done very little in fostering intracontinental relationships with reimagine our identity in the so called post-colony. other African states through education and international rela- SANE: In your Dictator series (Figs. –) you seem to evoke tions, and socioeconomically. e majority of South Africans are a silent protest. Is the color red, which features so predominantly not taught or made aware of how the country won its liberation in this series, an evocation of an uprising? struggle through the help of other neighboring states such as SIKHUMBUZO: In the Dictator series, I was interested in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, and Swaziland. An inferiority the history of political dynasties, exchanges, and cooperation in complex that underpins ways of thinking aer years of discrim- the elds of culture and military a airs between African states ination reveals itself when immigrants who come to seek refuge and Asian countries. e Diktat is constructed as “I is another,”

 african arts SUMMER 2017 VOL. 50, NO. 2 Downloaded from| http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00345 by guest on 26 September 2021 (Rimbaud in Petit ls and Sheridan ), portraying multiple research—reading various texts or studying sounds that may help identities. I focused on the cooperations speci cally in countries shape my ideas. Sometimes my approach is intuitive, especially such as Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, China, and Malaysia, with performance. A drawing, photograph, video, or sound is then where the political, economic, and cultural are embroiled. Yes, realized as scenarios that can be read in various forms then even- the red was used as an evocation of nationalistic uprising and to tually pieced together as a body of work or singular art pieces. I speak back to coloniality that still de nes culture, labor, intersub- also work for quite long periods of time with site-speci c projects, jective relations, and knowledge production within the countries and this longterm approach seems to require that I work in vari- mentioned above. ous mediums. For instance I have been working in an area called SANE: You oscillate between performance, photography, and Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape researching a monument social sculpture. How do you manage to do this so seamlessly? named Ntaba kaNdoda. It took a period of three years to research Where do you situate your thinking process in building ideas the historical context of this area and monument as I experimented that are multidisciplinary? Finally, can you link your process to with photography, video, and a literary archive. ese longterm the act of dialoguing with the past as a means to reimagine miss- projects are realized with working with professionals such as his- ing histories? torians, art curators, ethnomusicologists, and nongovernmental SIKHUMBUZO: Working in a multidisciplinary way helps me organizations such as Ntinga Ntaba kaNdoda. is multidisci- to resolve and map out ideas in a form of situations that could plinary and collaborative approach enables us to reimagine our be imagined using various tools. Normally the process starts as missing histories.

Notes  Marking the entrance of the Rhodes University, create an authentic Ciskeian identity, President Lennox the Drostdy Arch is one of the important tourist spots Sebe commissioned the erection of a monument on the Funding for this research and the publishing process in the city of Grahamstown. e place is one of the peak of Ntaba kaNdoda (http://www.bctourism.co.za/ was provided by the South African National Research seven buildings of the Albany Museum, and over a itemdetail.php?id=&category=). Foundation SARChI Chair in Geopolitics and the Arts of period of two centuries it has been a site where rituals  “Ntinga Ntaba kaNdoda is a nongovernmen- Africa and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. anks of terror were experimented on black bodies. tal organization that promotes sustainable rural to Ruth Simbao for feedback and writing support; Susan  e okapi is a lockback or slipjoint knife development in Keiskammahoek South. We are Blair for text editing support, and Rachel Baasch for originally produced in  for export to Germany’s owned and controlled by the local communities, assisting us with the images. colonies in Africa. e knife takes its name from the who came together and formed this organization in SANE is Eria Nsubuga’s artist’s name. girae-like central African okapi. Okapi knives are very September . We are run by a Board of Direc-  Abanene: e Chronicles (), Part I, https:// popular in Southern Africa, but have a rather nefarious tors elected at a General Assembly held every two vimeo.com/. Mukalazi and Nsubuga are reputation as they are associated with criminals and years” (http://www.ntabakandoda.org.za/index.php/ planning a series of Abanene animations. street gangs. about-us/-who-and-what-is-ntinga-ntaba-kandoda).  A boda boda is the motorcycle taxi used as a King Hintsa was the fourth Paramount Chief popular means of transport in Kampala. of the Gcaleka subgroup of the Xhosa nation from  Personal conversation with Mzili at Afriart References cited  until his death in . “Invited to peace talks Gallery in Kampala, Uganda, September . by Governor Harry Smith, the British demanded Gordon, Lewis. . “African-American Philosophy,  “Namugongo was formerly a place of execu- , cattle in compensation for the  war, and Race, and the Geography of Reason.” In Not Only the tion of all people who committed grave oences in that Hintsa tell all Xhosa chiefs to stop ghting the Master’s Tools: African American Studies in eory and the kingdom of Buganda. It is here that  of the  British … Hintsa was captured by the British during Practice, ed. Lewis A. Gordon and Jane A. Gordon, vol. Uganda Martyrs oered their life to Christ (burnt the Cape Frontier Wars  and in extenuating , p. . Boulder, CO: Paradigm. alive), on the orders of King Mwanga in , having circumstances was shot and killed trying to escape refused to denounce their Christian faith … On th Lalu, P. . e Deaths of Hintsa: Post-apartheid resulting in him becoming a martyr for the Xhosa June  Pope Benedict XV beati ed the Uganda South Africa and the Shape of Recurring Pasts. Cape people. His body was subsequently … dismem- Martyrs. Pope Paul VI canonized them on Mission Town: HSRC Press. bered by troops in search of grisly momentoes [sic] Sunday, th October,  in Saint Peter’s Basilica, and … his head had been preserved and taken Mqhayi, S.E.K. . Abantu Besizwe: Historical and Rome. e same Pope honoured the Martyrs with a back to Britain” (https://www.geni.com/people/ Biographical Writings, –. Ed. Je Opland. pilgrimage on st July to nd August —the rst Hintsa-King-of-the-Xhosa/). Johannesburg: Wits University Press. visit ever by a pope to the African Continent” (Uganda  Mqhayi was born in the Cape Province, South Martyrs’ Shrine, Namugonga website: www.ugandam- New Vision. .“Hamu Mukasa, the royal page Africa, to a Christian family. At the Lovedale institu- artyrsshrine.org.ug). that championed Ugandan education.” http://www. tion he was trained as a teacher. In addition to teaching  See Andrea Stultiens’ website, ings I do with newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news//hamu-mu- and helping to edit journals in the Xhosa language, he photographs: www.andreastultiens.nl. kasa-royal-page-championed-ugandan-education, was appointed to the Xhosa Bible Revision Board in  e exhibition at Framer Framed  was titled accessed November , . . Later he would help to standardize Xhosa gram- “Simuda Nyuma: Forwards Ever Backwards Never” (see Nsubuga, Eria SANE. . “Images, Reections, mar and writing, and then become a full-time author. www.andreastultiens.nl and www.framerframed.nl). Objects.” Start: Journal of Arts and Culture. http://  Ntaba kaNdoda is a monument with a deep  e Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George, startjournal.org///images-reections-objects, history in precolonial and early colonial legends, on now known as the Grahamstown Cathedral, was built accessed January , . the one hand, and disputed history in Lennox Sebe’s in the s and rst opened its doors in . In  Ciskei, on the other hand. Before Lennox Sebe erected Petit ls, P., and A. Sheridan. . Rimbaud. Charlot- St. George’s, by virtue of the appointment of a bishop, the Dutch Reformed Church-inspired spike on the tesville: University Press of Virginia. became a cathedral. is made it the mother church mountain there was Ntaba kaNdoda—a peak named of a vast diocese, a diocese in which the church has Rubin, Herbert J., and Irene S. Rubin. . Qualitative aer Chief Ndoda. Located about seven kilometers grown so much that it has twice had to be divided Interviewing: e Art of Hearing Data. Los Angeles, from Dimbaza on the route to Keiskammahoek, Ntaba (http://www.grahamstowncathedral.org/aboutus/his- CA: Sage. kaNdoda is an imposing sight. As part of his eorts to tory.php).

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