“Three generations of white South African men were bound together at that table. Vermuelen was the first generation. He defined Africa, made it safe for Basson to defile. I was the last generation, the last to grow up in segregated neighborhoods. Between us was the silent photograph of Wouter Basson. Like a distant father, Basson was absent at the dining table.” – Henk Rossouw (Hole in the White ‘Hood). Also Mahmood Mamdani on Bantu Education at UCT, Gael Reagon on sisterhood, Binyavanga Wainaina on dis-covering Kenya, Gaston Zossou on African intellectuals and more…
Cover:
Strange Fruit by Lewis Allen
Simnikiwe Buhlungu
Simnikiwe Buhlungu is an artist from Johannesburg engaged in a research-based practice that involves film, sound, installations, and text. In brief, her works seem to ask important and long-overdue questions about the nature of knowledge production and dissemination, as well as the contexts and circumstances that surround these epistemological phenomena.
A way in which Buhlungu re-interprets the assimilation of knowledge is by exploring language and the relationships between messages – whether conveyed visually, linguistically, or sonically. She is more interested in posing questions than providing answers, which catalyses social discourse and participatory, co-curative knowledge-making.
Buhlungu has previously taken part in group shows at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2022); Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2020, 2021); Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2019); and the Bergen Assembly (2019). Her debut solo exhibition, dissonated underings [hic!], after-happenings and khuayarings (sithi “ahhhh!”), took place at the Kunsthalle Bern (2022).
