Beadwork as gifting: workshop with Nkone Chaka

The Environmental Humanities South (EHS) welcomes you to a workshop facilitated by Nkone Chaka and their identity, Rona. Rona is a Sesotho word meaning "we" and/or "us". This week long gathering is in preparation of a garden of edible plants aimed for a rooftop garden located at the Humanities Building opposite Jeans Kitchen in upper campus, University of Cape Town. 

This work, in general, is an integral component of Nkone and Rona's masters dissertation research in which they interrogate monocultural food production and its failure in Africa South. More so in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the lens of art making, love, and thinking of gifting as a process, the work seeks to determine the viability of care to chart a course towards food justice and sovereignty in this part of the world.

Inspired by the writings of Anna Tsing and the works of Nobuhle Art Collective, a group of black women in South Africa whose primary mode is beading, the workshop is an exercise of sharing a space of relation and collective meditation. Participants will be encouraged to bead alongside Rona and reflect on the state of food sovereigty in Africa South. 

The workshop will take place between 18 to 22 September 2023. From 12 pm to 4 pm daily. Rona will be available throughout the set times, and everyone will also gain access to their artistic process. 

For more info, email zainab.adams@uct.ac.za and antoon.ndaba@uct.ac.za