The iQhiya collective is a group of 11 young black women artists from Cape Town and Johannesburg, formed in 2015 following the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa. The name iQhiya refers to the traditional Xhosa headscarf representing togetherness. The collective provides a space for shared experiences and exploring vulnerabilities. As black women, iQhiya members acknowledge the violence they face and vow to create work addressing this issue. Their varied art forms including performance, photography, and video offer a window into the often hidden imagination of black women.

1. BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS / iQHIYA (STAFF WRITER: MLR)
BYT
no.94
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS
In the months following the launch of the
#RhodesMustFall movement (March 2015)
in South Africa, we’ve seen wave after wave
of student activism that has brought with it
a shift towards radical social and economic
change in the country. Established in May
2015, the iQhiya collective is a direct result
of these stirred-up conversations. With
roots in both Cape Town and Johannesburg,
iQhiya comprises of Asemahle Ntlonti,
Bonolo Kavula, Bronwyn Katz, Buhlebezwe
Siwani, Lungiswa Gqunta, Pinky Mayeng,
Sethembile Msezane, Sisipho Ngodwana,
Thandiwe Msebenzi, Thuli Gamedze and
Tlhogie Kelapile.
The moniker ‘iQhiya’ is a “signifier of
strength and burden,” referring to the
traditional headscarf worn by Xhosa women.
It is a potent symbol of togetherness, as
the corners of the doek (‘headscarf’) come
together to offer support to the headdress.
In the last year of their collaboration, iQhiya
has created a space where members are
able to find comfort in shared experiences,
as well as the opportunity to explore
personal vulnerabilities in a “welcoming
environment.”
Eschewing the stereotypes surrounding
an ‘all-girl’ collective, iQhiya members
acknowledge the complex and potent
violence enacted against black women
within the South African context, vowing
to take a stand. As much as it is a meeting
place of artistic minds, the collective is also
a utilitarian environment where members
come together to further each other in
an industry where black women are still
largely marginalised. According to them,
the work is “at once playful and sombre;
it is alive, and we’d do well not to deny
its anger.”
Members Sethembile Msezane and
Buhlebezwe Siwani engage with themes
of violence and anger through their
performance work. In Msezane’s ‘Public
Holiday’ series (2013-2014), she becomes
a figurative monument to women who
have been excluded from public spaces
and accepted historical narratives. Placing
herself on a plinth, she becomes the
antithesis to the prolific statuary presence
of figures like Cecil John Rhodes, opening
a dialogue about how this exclusionary
practice occurred and calling for an end
to it.
Siwani, on the other hand, takes inspiration
from her role as a sangoma (‘traditional
healer’). Her work engages with the
difficulty of revealing the inner self as
an artist whilst having to conceal the self
as a practicing sangoma. On this subject,
she says “as a sangoma, I don’t operate as
one person,” which is a poignant overlap
with her role in iQhiya and the need for
the member artists to operate together
to bring about significant social change.
Foreshadowing their goals as members of
iQhiya, in 2014 Thuli Gumedze, Bonolo
Kavula, Asemahle Ntloni and Thandiwe
Msebenzi contributed to an art workshop
outreach project at Umtha Welanga
Aftercare Centre in Khayelitsha (Cape
Town) while students at the University of
Cape Town .
Member Bronwyn Katz won the merit
award for her video piece Grond Herinnering
in the 2015 Sasol New Signatures art
competition. Her video reflects on the
nostalgia of childhood memories and the
attempt to preserve this subjective history.
Katz and Bonolo Kavula were both 2014
finalists in the same competition.
Photographer Thandiwe Msebenzi was
awarded the coveted Tierney Fellowship
for 2014/2015 on the merit of her portrait
series ‘OoBhuti abatsha.’ The series depicts
young Xhosa men dressed as ‘dandys’ in
“new variations of old tweed attire” – the
equivalent of Sapeurs – following their
sacred rites of initiation into manhood.
The project grapples with the discourse
of appropriation and black empowerment
in the post-colonial era. Lungiswa Gqunta
received the Simon Gerson Prize at the
Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2014 for
her burnt wood sculpture series, titled The
Home of Residue that explored themes of
melancholy, isolation and anxiety through
the renewal of memories in charred,
familiar objects.
Many of iQhiya’s members are also
freelance writers, building the narrative
of this generation of young black women
artists by contributing to the surrounding
discourse and interrogating contemporary
feminism that, for the most part, still
remains the domain of white, cisgender
women. Through their varied mediums,
including performance art, installation,
photography and video art, iQhiya offers a
window to the “often-veiled black female
imagination.”
Their first performance as a collective, titled
The Portrait, formed part of ‘#theopening’
exhibition at Greatmore Studios (Cape
Town) in February 2016. The performance
was inspired by a photograph of Lungiswa
Gqunta’s mother and aunts when they were
young women. The photo gives away none
of the hardships the women experienced
at the time and raises questions around the
societal expectations placed on women to be
seen as beautiful, composed and never vocal
when experiencing difficulties.
iQhiya:
A Window to the Often-Veiled
Black Female Imagination
150 151
01 Buhlebezwe Siwani, Zemk’inkomo Magwalandini, 2015. Performative installation, skulls, wooden poles, steel and imbhola.
02 Thandiwe Msebenzi, Indlela yam, 2015. Triptych. Photography Ink on cotton paper, 55 x 36 cm.
03 Bronwyn Katz, Oumagrootjie, 2015. Sunlight soap and cement bricks. Courtesy of iQhiya.
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