Azazole Ndamase

Virtual Exhibition

Group Catalogue Site

Turning Bricks into Bread

It is important to note that South Africa is as it is today because of the hard work of formidable Black womxn whose contributions are still left unacknowledged – womxn such as Charlotte Maxeke, Albertina Sisulu, Frances Baard and many others whose stories have been erased, distorted or unrecorded. These are womxn who fought tirelessly during the time of oppression for their dream of a South Africa where Black womxn would have rights and a sense of being. The purpose of not only this text but the entirety of my body of work is to pay homage to such womxn.

During apartheid in South Africa, numerous policies and acts were put into place to enforce white rule. Mud houses (in which many Black people lived) were taxed, which compelled people to commute between city spaces and the informal settlements they had been forcibly removed to. Black womxn were often employed as domestic workers in white households, while their families – the Black majority – suffered. Black womxn were left alone in their own households by their husbands, fathers and brothers, who provided cheap labour in either the gold, diamond, platinum and coal mines or farms, or who were recruited by the army. These womxn had to find ways to live. My work highlights the ordeals these womxn went through so that young Black girls like me would be able to live a life they could only dream of.

This aspect of my work has been greatly inspired by the artist Mary Sibande, who sculpts Sophie (her domestic worker alter-ego) as a representation of all the womxn who have been exploited by the system. Sibande captures this concept beautifully; Sophie is always depicted with her eyes closed, which blocks the viewer. The discomfort of the reality such womxn exist in propels them to be in a constant dream-state, in which they imagine a better future for their descendants. While it can be argued that we still have a long way to go (not only by engaging in conversations that are a catalyst for change, but also by addressing, confronting and healing), it is also important to acknowledge that we are living our ancestors’ wildest dreams.

Activist and historian Alan Wieder quotes the CPSA’s writing from the 1940s: ‘What is the much-publicised policy of apartheid? It is not a new policy. All they propose is to make the non-European more of a slave, an outcast and a third-class citizen in the land of his birth.’ This statement explains that the goal of apartheid was to oppress, destroy and dehumanise people of colour in South Africa. Black womxn were at the forefront, absorbing and enduring this trauma; my work speaks of the beauty, creation and lifelong lessons that have been carved out by these womxn.