We spend time with uAzola Krweqe, a curator and visual practitioner from Cape Town, residing and practising from her paternal home located in Nkanga, Willowvale. Her photographic enquiries explore her subjects’ freedom to consider how they wish to be made visible to public audiences. While visitng with uAzola we come to learn of how her return home has nurtured a growing relationship with her culture and ancestral practises that have allowed for her to be returned to histories that tend to be forgotten when live and move in the cities. As we meander through her personal story we come to learn anew of how isintu can play an integral part kwingcinga yethu as black practitioners.
Inckubeko Yakwantu is Azola’s extension on her research and development project following her time spent with Curator and British Council consultant Cindy Sissokho whilst at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Addressing the ongoing provocation of “representation”, Azola has come to grow her ideas, looking at ‘How young curators can think of ways that solve local issues?’ This includes creative work that encourages social development, particularly in rural and remote locations like that of Willowvale. Based kuGatyane, Inkcubeko Yakwantu involves the Makers of the Willowvale Arts Centre while drawing on indigenous knowledge practices and intuitive processes as a part of its development and experimentation. Key to Inkcubeko Yakwantu are intergenerational conversations between young and old, which aid the project in its re-imaginings of new pathways that help shape a more compassionate and self-empowered future.
“It is my hope that this project will contribute towards rural development in South Africa by challenging the problematic representations of those living in rural areas that have been historically enforced through colonialism and western thought, and that continue to exist in the now. I am excited by the prospects of supporting and developing sustainable art and culture spaces/activities ezilalini (in rural areas).” Azola is a part of the community co-authors who offer us a new lens into ilali and it’s value for the contemporary Maker/Thinker.
Community contributors The James Family Mrs Kutazwa James The community yaku Gatyana Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse Azola Krweqe
Mama Makholi Ms Nobuhle James Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa Willowvale Makers Co-op Mr Mangaliso Jafta Special thanks to the production team: Executive Producer - Bongani Tau Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023.
The Willowvale Arts Center is a creative hub located on the outskirts of the remote town of Willowvale. Established in 2008 by the Department of Sports, Arts and culture, the uniquely designed building is the host site for creatives kuGatyana (Willowvale) and Mbhashe Municipality at large, where many come to learn about and explore innovative methods that can aid them in growing in the local creative economy in the Eastern Cape. The center (W.A.C) functions as an inclusive space for the community to meet at, share and hold (archive) important cultural dialogues/stories/performances as means of engaging with cultural heritage in new, contemporary and dynamic ways for all practitioners/thinkers from the local area.
By placing Imiphindo kwaXhosa in this local creative hub, the podcast was able to tap into the minds and practises of local Makers/Thinkers who tend to be left out of critical reflections on cultural practises. These practioners who are often referred to as 'ooMama noTata bethu' are the threads that hold the deeper lineal meanings of dress, ritual, design and the everyday in tact. By investing in local hubs and the Makers/Thinkers located here, we hope to offer these voices new audiences who will come to recognise and value their critical reflections on culture and the act of 'being' kwaXhosa. Community contributors The James Family Mrs Kutazwa James The community yaku Gatyana Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse Azola Krweqe Mama Makholi Ms Nobuhle James Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa Willowvale Makers Co-op Mr Mangaliso Jafta Special thanks to the production team: Executive Producer - Bongani Tau Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023
What do the slippages of fashion look like? What happens to the voids?
In this episode we explore the slippages of fashion; blurring the urban & rural, the past & present, the individual & communal, folding languages, locations, and aesthetics to present new fashion knowledges, alternate fashion languages, and routes to other fashion genealogies. Ms Nobuhle James helps us navigate the beginnings of some of the traces of fold language kwaXhosa, introducing the linguistic overlaps. Her personal story opens us up to discover the creative potentials that exist when we are limited with resources but passions burn deeply. Through her personal story we are reminded of the importance of investing/supporting/planting creative structures in ilali nabantwana basezilalini (the rural areas and with the village children).
As an advisor of isiXhosa in the Eastern Cape, Ms Nobuhle James becomes a teacher for the unknowing and the forgotten. She takes us into an informal room of coming to learn of the differences and similarities, the re-made and the innovative ways of learning and rearing found kwaXhosa.
Community contributors The James Family Mrs Kutazwa James The community yaku Gatyana Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse Azola Krweqe
Mama Makholi Ms Nobuhle James Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa Willowvale Makers Co-op Mr Mangaliso Jafta Special thanks to the production team: Executive Producer - Bongani Tau Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023
Umbhinqo; Kubhinqa abatheni xa kutheni? Narrated by Mama Makholi, a maker at the Willowvale Arts Center, she details for us which folds adorn which body and for what occasions. Here we come to learn about isishuba and the colours that fashion male and female bodies kwaXhosa. In our conversation with Mama Makholi we try locate the historical roots of colours used kwaXhosa, when and why we wrap the body in this particular garment.
Umbhinqo - the act of folding cloth around the body is normally associated with the female form but with Mama Makholi we come to understand that ukubhinqa extends to all genders, it is a way of wrapping the body as a form of showing respect to ancestry.
Isishuba being the traditional garment for men kwaXhosa is made with certain specifications, Mama Makholi becomes our Fashion instructor, guiding us to come to appreciate the craftsmanship behind the garment.
As we listen to her one has to wonder if our modern day re-appropriations do not take away from these historical meanings of the cloth that fashions the body.
Community contributors
The James Family
Mrs Kutazwa James
The community yaku Gatyana
Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse
Azola Krweqe
Ms Nobuhle James
Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa
Mama Makholi
Willowvale Makers Co-op
Mr Mangaliso Jafta
Special thanks to the production team:
Executive Producer - Bongani Tau
Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula
Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023
Knowledge-makers and Indigenous Archivists such as our elders, indigenous craft makers, okanye imbongi help build and maintain deep constructivism kwaXhosa, shaping how our histories continue to unfold. Through practice, collaboration, interaction, and education they guide our everyday encounters with indigenous knowledges acting as living remnants of our ancestry. Ancient knowledges are freely offered to us (children/community members kwaXhosa) as if one is being given a set of keys to their personal freedom. Mama Jilingisa is an Everyday Knowledge-Maker. Her wisdom and knowing of instimbi (traditional beadwork) and it’s many histories sets her apart as a sacred/important member of the community as she boldly advocates for skills and knowledges that have begun to loose their significant meanings. Her passions for her community (people and practices) has resulted in her being a sought after teacher. In her many workings, uMama teaches on the history, making and meaning of iintsimbi (beadwork) to community children, other crafters while championing for social development in her village. Yonke into iyathetha. Netsimbi le iyathetha.
Here with uMama Jilingisa we re-construct the meanings, filling in the gaps to reveal the intergenerational narratives that are situated in the art of iintsimbi. Before they adorn the body as decorative pieces, they come to reveal ritual/sacred threads that connect us to our long past.
Community contributors
The James Family
Mrs Kutazwa James
The community yaku Gatyana
Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse
Azola Krweqe
Ms Nobuhle James
Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa
Willowvale Makers Co-op
Mr Mangaliso Jafta
Special thanks to the production team:
Executive Producer - Bongani Tau
Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula
Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023
What can creative work offer a displaced spirit? How does one heal back into their community? How do we return to forgotten (hi)stories? In this fragment we think through the healing properties of creative practise for black creative practitioners.
Community contributors
The James Family
Mrs Kutazwa James
The community yaku Gatyana
Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse
Azola Krweqe
Ms Nobuhle James
Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa
Willowvale Makers Co-op
Mr Mangaliso Jafta
Special thanks to the production team:
Executive Producer - Bongani Tau
Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula
Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023
A reflexive moment at thinking through fold words in isiXhosa.
Community contributors
The James Family
Mrs Kutazwa James
The community yaku Gatyana
Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse
Azola Krweqe
Ms Nobuhle James
Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa
Willowvale Makers Co-op
Mr Mangaliso Jafta
Special thanks to the production team:
Executive Producer - Bongani Tau
Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula
Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023
This episode marks a shift—from gathering and observing, to sensing and becoming. We begin to see how the folds of Xhosa dress and ritual are not merely symbolic, but pedagogical: they teach, they mark, they hold. Through a return to ritual space, our host meets the fabric of her own inheritance—not as a distant object of study, but as a living archive folded into the body.
What emerges is a crossroads where personal becoming meets ancestral instruction. The Xhosa fold reveals itself not only in what is worn, but in what is felt: the weight of memory, the tactility of care, the discipline of dressing in relation to spirit. In this episode, questions surface as guideposts—What is the scene of our dress? Who are we a-dressing? Who is being honoured in these acts of adornment?
Rather than offering fixed answers, the episode opens a contemplative space where knowing is gestured through rhythm, fabric, gesture, and return.
CLOSING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Narrating Voices
Mr Mangaliso Jafta
Azola Krweqe
Ms Nobuhle James
Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa
Mama Phakani
Zizo Ntukushe
Visual & Video Contributors
Azola Krweqe
Sibabalwe Makeleni
Community Contributors
The James Family – ooXaba
Mrs Kutazwa James
Mrs Nokugcina James (special thanks for the recording of umsebenzi kaMnu. Luphumlo James)
Mrs Ludidi
Ms Phumla James
Ms Nobuhle James
Willowvale Makers Co-op
Kholiswa Magidi
Theko Theo Yinindwa
Philiswa Matutu
Nwabisa Mahlaleshushu
Miranda Siwlabeni
Youth Participants
Zintle Bonakele
Vuyokazi Mncono
Lethu Jilingisi
Nokubonga Hawu
Lisakhanya Poni
Yolande Tskane
Liyabona Ntshobodwana
Buyiswa Beauty Nduwe
Community yakuGatyana
Cebisa Magoqoza
Mzukisi Nketshu
Thando Madwantsi
Thobile Tsutsu
Sikelela Thobigunya
Neliswa Bambintala
Miranda Sihlangu
And the broader community at large
Special thanks to:
Azola Krweqe
Lukhanyo Muluse
Locations Referenced
Willowvale Arts Center, kuGatyane
James Family Home – Elukhanyisweni, eQumbu, eMdeni
Mr & Mrs James’ Residence – Highbury, Umtata
James Residence – Walmer Road Lodge, Beacon Bay, East London
Ngumla Family Home – eGcibala, Tsomo
Mpintsha Family Home – Nkanga, Willowvale
Buffalo City Municipality
Production Team
Executive Producer: Bongani Tau
Curator & Editor: Siviwe James
Content Advisor: Sihle Sogaula
Graphic Design: 2DOTS Space Agency
Video & Sound Editing: Siviwe James
Text: Siviwe James
Xhosa Language Advisor: Ms Nobuhle James
Digital Archiving Support
Art Meets App
Institutional Support
Eastern Cape Department of Sports, Arts and Culture
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED: Imiphindo kwaXhosa © 2023 Created and produced by Siviwe James (James-Laurie) With support from the African Fashion Research Institute (AFRI) and Creative Nestlings Foundation, under the New Narratives Programme (2023).
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
“Imnyama ibenomgca omhlophe.”
In this textured episode, we are guided by uTat’ Mangaliso Jafta—community elder, social entrepreneur, and former MK operative—who walks with us through the streets of Willowvale, kuGatyana. As co-host and conversational anchor, uTat’ Jafta opens a thread that is both personal and political, inviting us to consider how dress codes such as iqhiya carry historical, social, and spiritual meaning across generations.
Our inquiry begins with a simple provocation: ukhule wena kutwalwa iqhiya ezinjani? ooMama bakho, nikhule kunxitywa iqhiya ezinjani? Zibanjani? This unfolding gesture—posed to local residents—guides us into an intimate mapping of how aesthetic choices operate as embodied knowledge. Through walking, asking, watching, and listening, we encounter everyday dressers whose iqhiya styles speak to inherited practice, everyday beauty, and the quiet discipline of presence.
Rather than treating iqhiya as a static cultural object, this episode positions it as a living fold—remade, resisted, reinterpreted in time. It reveals how local fashion languages are formed not only through style but through intergenerational memory, custom, and the unspoken codes of dignity and belonging. Here, fashion is not performance—it is continuity. Iqhiya is not just adornment—it is archive, instruction, and interface.
For those who know: this episode was first titled iKetshemiya—a word that remains folded into the hem of this offering, not lost, but carried.
What appears ordinary is layered with codes. What appears fixed, is in motion.
CLOSING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Narrating Voices
Mr Mangaliso Jafta
Azola Krweqe
Ms Nobuhle James
Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa
Mama Phakani
Zizo Ntukushe
Visual & Video Contributors
Azola Krweqe
Sibabalwe Makeleni
Community Contributors
The James Family – ooXaba
Mrs Kutazwa James
Mrs Nokugcina James (special thanks for the recording of umsebenzi kaMnu. Luphumlo James)
Mrs Ludidi
Ms Phumla James
Ms Nobuhle James
Willowvale Makers Co-op
Kholiswa Magidi
Theko Theo Yinindwa
Philiswa Matutu
Nwabisa Mahlaleshushu
Miranda Siwlabeni
Youth Participants
Zintle Bonakele
Vuyokazi Mncono
Lethu Jilingisi
Nokubonga Hawu
Lisakhanya Poni
Yolande Tskane
Liyabona Ntshobodwana
Buyiswa Beauty Nduwe
Community yakuGatyana
Cebisa Magoqoza
Mzukisi Nketshu
Thando Madwantsi
Thobile Tsutsu
Sikelela Thobigunya
Neliswa Bambintala
Miranda Sihlangu
And the broader community at large
Special thanks to:
Azola Krweqe
Lukhanyo Muluse
Locations Referenced
Willowvale Arts Center, kuGatyane
James Family Home – Elukhanyisweni, eQumbu, eMdeni
Mr & Mrs James’ Residence – Highbury, Umtata
James Residence – Walmer Road Lodge, Beacon Bay, East London
Ngumla Family Home – eGcibala, Tsomo
Mpintsha Family Home – Nkanga, Willowvale
Buffalo City Municipality
Production Team
Executive Producer: Bongani Tau
Curator & Editor: Siviwe James
Content Advisor: Sihle Sogaula
Graphic Design: 2DOTS Space Agency
Video & Sound Editing: Siviwe James
Text: Siviwe James
Xhosa Language Advisor: Ms Nobuhle James
Digital Archiving Support
Art Meets App
Institutional Support
Eastern Cape Department of Sports, Arts and Culture
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED: Imiphindo kwaXhosa © 2023 Created and produced by Siviwe James (James-Laurie) With support from the African Fashion Research Institute (AFRI) and Creative Nestlings Foundation, under the New Narratives Programme (2023).
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
What does it mean for us to fashion ourselves/our identities in material culture? How does dress come to inscribe a sense of value, the status of one 'becoming' another? UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED: Imiphindo kwaXhosa explores dress sensibilities kwaXhosa and how they come to inform/encourage/affirm ones place in a community, their roles and responsibilities to others as they work/share/live as a part of a collective. With the many intricate ritual ceremonies/practises found kwaXhosa, dress is not only a form of covering the body but it comes to instruct/direct behaviours and attitudes for events and the everyday. As acts of social practise and community building, dress compliments, celebrates and honours the lineal connections of the wearer.
Isinxibo sethu allows us to be situated in different forms of being; as girl, woman, new bride, maturing woman in community/elder. These processes of becoming are not isolated to a singular gender, as a community, both men and women share and experience different stages of being re-dressed to fit their new purpose(s). There is a process of continuity that is placed on the body where the wearer is offered material ways of crossing over, becoming more than just the individual; resulting in change. Ukuba ngumfazi, sithetha uthini? Ukuba yindoda, sithetha uthini? (what do we mean when we speak about becoming a woman? What do we mean when we speak about becoming a man?) As our host/researcher Siviwe James sets off to discover what the fold kwaXhosa might be, she comes to learn how interconnected the relationship between dress and the self is kwaXhosa.
Community contributors
The James Family
Mrs Kutazwa James
The community yaku Gatyana
Willowvale Arts Center and with special thanks to the Art Center Manager, Lukhanyo Muluse
Azola Krweqe
Mama Makholi
Ms Nobuhle James
Mrs Nokhaya Jilingisa
Willowvale Makers Co-op
Mr Mangaliso Jafta
Special thanks to the production team:
Executive Producer - Bongani Tau
Content Advisor - Sihle Sogaula
Graphic Designers - 2DOTS Space Agency
UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED is nestled under THE FOLD – a creative and collaborative research project led by the African Fashion Research Institute in partnership with Creative Nestlings Foundation for the New Narratives Programme 2023
