Nomusa Makhubu & Khona Dlamini

Artist: Nomusa Makhubu		Poet: Khona Dlamini
Title: Ukunqamuka Kwe Mbeleko		Title: look at me



Matriculated in 2002 at Riverside High School, Vereeniging, Vaal Triangle and presently studying for a BA in Fine Arts at Rhodes University specialising in Photography.		Khona Dlamini is a Durban-born writer and journalism student at Rhodes University. She has worked as co-ordinator of the Women’s Day celebrations at the BAT Centre since 2002.

Work: Art Assistant: National Arts Festival 2004 – “Through the looking glass”; National Arts Festival 2005 – “Sounds Crazy”. Narrator (part-time): South African Library for the Blind. Exhibitions: Student Exhibitions 2004, 2005; Paperworks Exhibition 2005.		Her writing has been published by the Agenda Feminist Media Project, Y-mag, kush.co.za and Grahamstown’s local paper the Grocott’s Mail.

Other: Societies: Secretary 2004/ Arts Co-ordinator 2005 for Kujenga Inchi Upia dealing with outreach programmes that aim at creating student involvement in the community by teaching art, music, dance. In 2006 Nomusa was awarded the Gerard Sekoto Prize for the most promising artist in the ABSA L’Atelier Art Competition 2006.

Artist statements

Nomusa Makhubu:

Translated the title means 'the cutting of the umbilical cord'. I'm not sure if in English 'cutting' expresses fully what's in the title. The term 'Imbeleko' means: the act of carrying the baby on the back, giving birth (ukubeleka) and the umbilical cord. A ceremony called Imbeleko is performed for every newborn, done on the tenth day of a child’s birth and it can be done when the child is a toddler, or even older. It is the practice of introducing the child to life and to the ancestors.

Imbeleko therefore means both detachment (from the mother) and attachment (to the mother, ancestors) and is introductory to life for the child. The safety pin represents the play is between safety and danger and also signifies detachment and attachment. Traditionally safety pins have been used to secure a cotton napkin around a baby and I applaud mothers who are able to use it for this function and not harm the child by rather piercing her fingers rather than the child’s. It is also used as to secure the blanket that holds the baby on the mother's back. The sharpness of the pin carries with it a signifier of the sharpness of life, a 'piercing', a pain.

In terms of the shoes, I initially thought of printing tons of shoes to speak of the way in which children in homes are thought of in numbers - allocated to caregivers, allocated a pair of shoes from the bulk received from donations. I decided to use one pair to signify the need for women to stand for children or any child in teaching them the walk of life so that the child grows with self- esteem and emotional support from an adult attachment to an adult.

The adult should always be willing to give guidance, not because it is the job of a caregiver but because it is their moral obligation. Even at the stage of being detached from a mother physically from cutting the umbilical cord, the child has a guardian that is more than just a caregiver. This is essential, especially with the spread of HIV/AIDS, and its devastating result of parentless children and abusive environments.

I respect and applaud women and men who work as caregivers in orphanages and children's homes. I tried to highlight the need for more women to make a stand because there are so many children who are detached from their parents and walk the streets, day in day out, in search for basic needs, the most important need being is to find someone who actually cares.

Khona Dlamini:

There are many children who are invisible to us, except when they come to our attention in media reports. They are often presented to us as numbers that are either being taken care of within state homes, or are being failed by the system that fosters them. Once we have turned the page over or turned the TV off, they slip from our minds and tongues as if they never existed.

The title of this poem is “look at me”. It is about affirming the existence of these children so that they can know and feel that they are full human beings, that not coming from a nuclear or extended blood family is not a lack. And, in the process our recognition and affirmation of their humanity reinforces our own humanity. They are a part of our society and we should see and treat them as such.

Back