The artist is a descendant of the Makholokoe, Bantu-speaking people whose early history began in central Congo. They migrated southwards around 600AD to find greener pastures, but their travel wasn’t made easy. Issues of land and property dispossession through brutal oppression by people of different ethnicity caused painful suffering. Makholokoe were forced to move around for centuries, looking for a place to call their own.

The use of doors in this artwork speaks to lack of access to certain spaces, as the Makholokoe found during their travels. Whilst the artwork speaks to the history of access, it also invites a conversation around contemporary ideas of access, literally or figuratively, which many still grapple with today.

SESOTHO POEM TO MAKHOLOKOE PEOPLE

Paballo Majela

A kokota

Ba mokorotlela

Eitse ha ba mobulela

Ba mo komotela

Lekgolokwel

ha miriti e theta!

Kgohlong ho kenwa ka mapatso

E seng ka lehlafi

They knocked on the door

They were grumbled at

When they opened the door

They shouted at them

Warrior

When the shadow forms

You enter the valley by cracks

And not by doors

Hulle het aan die deur geklop

daar was vir hulle gebrom

Toe hulle die deur oopmaak

was daar op hulle geskree

Vegter

Wanneer die skadus vorm

kom jy die vallei deur krake binne

en nie deur deure