Umseme Uyakhuluma is one of the latest projects by artist Zana Masombuka, which is a collaboration led by an all-women team from South Africa to Côte d’Ivoire. The project consisting of performance, video and photography, aims to highlight the importance of African stories being shared by African voices and making room within that space for experimentation, mysticism and magic realism. Much of Zana’s work references identity. While she tries on different identities in her artworks through dress, she aims to speak about self beyond the physical, exploring the potential of our inner worlds.
The core collective is made up of Lafalaise Dion (producer, costume designer and actress) whose work with cowrie shells has been incorporated symbolically into the project (you would’ve previously seen her work in Beyonce’s ‘Black is King’ and ‘Spirit’); Tsholofelo Maseko (producer, art director and actress) a familiar face from integral South African television shows and films; Mapula Lehong (sound designer and editor), a SAFTA award-winning sound designer and multi-hyphenate whose poetry features in Zanele Muholi’s SomnyamaNgonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness; Boiphelo Khunou (videographer) a multidisciplinary artist and founder of archival platform BOTAKI KE BOTSHELO which merges education and curation of creativity from Africa; and Bontle Juku (photographer), a visual artist and conceptual photographer whose work explores narratives and sociopolitical discourse surrounding the Black body. She was one of Design Indaba’s Emerging Creatives in 2020. Including Zana (producer, conceptual director, art director and actress), the core team were supported by a larger cast and crew of women of all ages.