community conversations

Impiliso ngobugcisa

Eunice Mangwane:

"The Keiskamma Altarpiece is very special. We call this piece Impiliso ngobugcisa (Healing through art). The way it opens like a book, it’s like Keiskamma Art Project. With most things in the Project, you see it and you think something, then you open it again and you see something else and it tells a different story.

The Keiskamma Altarpiece is one of the artworks that made Keiskamma well known. When visitors come to Hamburg, they always want to see the Altarpiece. What interests people is what made Carol Baker come back from Europe with the idea of making an altarpiece like the Isenheim Altarpiece she saw there. I think what made her do it was that, in our communities, people with HIV/AIDS were being rejected by their families and children, and that was what happened in the German artwork as well, a long time ago, when it was made by the artists for a monastery where they ran a hospital.

So the story behind the artwork is that Dr Baker had gone on holiday to Europe with her husband, Professor Hofmeyer. I think it was to France. There she visited a museum and she saw the famous Isenheim Altarpiece. This is how she explains it. When you enter, there are these two panels and this big part of the altarpiece in the middle. It shows Christ on the cross covered in sores from the plague, showing the patients that Jesus understood and felt their suffering and didn’t judge them. She came back with that image and when she came back, she had this idea. Knowing that within Hamburg and elsewhere there were people dying from this HIV/AIDS, and there was a stigma because people had no knowledge about it, she came back with the idea that the altarpiece she saw in Germany must be brought to Eastern Cape. Now I will get into our Keiskamma Altarpiece.

When Doc had this idea, she took the idea and went to the Project. She told the ladies that this was what she would like to be done. There was just a handful of ladies working on this Project then. As you can see the panels are closed. Those are the children and some of the elderly people. The bottom part of the piece is the graves. You can see the crosses here. There are the coffins, and these are the people who are gathered in the graveyard. So many people were dying. Every second or third week there was a funeral of people dying of HIV/AIDS and people were not accepting it. Those images in Germany that were showing people who were dying of a particular pandemic not being accepted in their families, the same was happening here in Hamburg; people were not being accepted in their families. They wouldn’t let them sleep in the same house, use the same cups, wash basins, knives and so on.

When this Altarpiece is closed, that is what is shows. That is Lagina Maphuma and Susan Paliso, whose child also died of HIV/AIDS, but they did not know that it was HIV/AIDS; all they knew was that rituals were not done. When you open the Altarpiece, you can see that there was healing, health; from not being accepted, people were now being accepted. When you look at the first panel, you can see the trees and the children, birds flying there, and you can see life taking place in that first panel. The second panel is the different dominations we have in Hamburg. Even though we don’t have church buildings, people belong to different types of churches and have different beliefs. As you can see, there is a Methodist wearing another type of uniform from the Anglicans and so on. A lady with a black skirt and a red blouse belongs to the Methodist church. These are all the different denominations. Even though we had no church buildings, we would have services in people’s homes every Sunday. The elderly lady with the stick is Susan Paliso. These two ladies were the oldest ladies in our community. The lady in the navy blue, in the middle, is mourning—in our culture, when your husband dies, you need to mourn but what you wear depends on what your in-laws are prepared to clothe you with. It could be black, or it could be navy blue (like that woman), or it could be any other colour. But you need to have the skirt, the cloak, and you need to have the scarf. They need to match.

When you look at this panel, you can see the footprints. There was a gentleman that was here in Hamburg. He passed away. We used to call him by his clan name, Gaba. He used to go to the beach and run up and down the dunes making patterns. He would run up and down and he would be playing his guitar and he would make those footprints.

Hamburg apparently has thirteen different species. In the artwork, those are all the fish, sea creatures and birds you find here. You can also see here, that there are a lot of different types of birds in Hamburg. When you are sad and lonely, and you sit on the veranda and watch the birds and hear them singing noisily, you feel happy. The birds bring happiness during the sad moments in our community.

When we open the last panels, we can see Susan Paliso and Mama Lagina Maphuma. Even though the ladies were doing the embroidery, there was a gentleman who was involved in doing this altarpiece and he was from Zimbabwe. He was very good at doing street wiring. This whole top part was done by wiring. They were taught by him how to do street wiring. When you look here, you can see these are birds and nests here and the ladies would use the cotton to do the embroidery. This boy is one of the people that died of HIV/AIDS; this lady was manager of a studio in Ntilini and these are her grandchildren. This is her eldest child and these are her grandchildren here. This is where the ladies would cut the plastic bags when Carol Baker first got us making bags and so on from litter we collected. Wait, I was wrong, the fishermen used to go and relieve themselves there! The plastic bags were cut in the old Keiskamma studio here. The framework of the Keiskamma Altarpiece is wooden, and it was made by Professor Hofmeyer. Here is where Justus Hofmeyer did the framework, which was taken from Keiskamma Art Project and put up in the community hall, pulled by trucks. All the embroidery that the ladies did was carefully attached on there. I think it took more than three to four months to build. I think that was about how long. I know it was not in a week or something; it took time.

After they finished working on the Altarpiece, and putting it together, it was taken by a huge truck to Grahamstown (now called Makhanda) because there was going to be the annual National Arts Festival. The first time we saw the piece together was in the cathedral in Grahamstown. That was such an amazing feeling, and you could feel in your body that excitement. I thought, to think that our people were dying. Secondly, how did this lady Carol Baker manage to achieve this? Thirdly, where is this artwork going to be taken? Does it end here? We never knew then that the piece would be travelling and people across the world would get to see this Keiskamma Altarpiece from Hamburg, Eastern Cape.

From Grahamstown, it went to Canada. I went to Toronto with Carol and the lady who was managing the Arts Project at the time, Jackie Downs. From there I travelled with the Altarpiece to many different places. It had to be assembled and disconnected and I had to be there to instruct on which piece goes where, until we came back to South Africa. It was not an easy journey because even the people who were working on the pieces were scared of getting HIV/AIDS. They were worrying that they would get infected when they worked on the cloths, because that was the thinking at the time. They would work on the piece anyway until they had finished."

Nozeti Makhubalo:

"Yes, I also never imagined that one day I would be on an aeroplane, travelling overseas as an artist with the Keiskamma Altarpiece! As Eunice explains, the purpose of the Keiskamma Altarpiece is to be open and teach others about HIV/AIDS, and to encourage people not to lose hope when the disease arrives in their family or community. They must just go to the clinic and get their ARVs. Susan Paliso is a true hero in Hamburg because she bravely stood up and shared her HIV status. Other people, when they were stricken by HIV, were pointing fingers and accusing others in the community of witchcraft. They were scared to accept the sickness. The Keiskamma Altarpiece helped to change that. It brought hope."

Eunice Mangwane:

"Yes, people in the community were very unaccepting. They had heard a story that HIV/AIDS is a disease that affects only monkeys. Then all of a sudden they said it was a virus affecting only gay men. There was a lot of ignorance. What I liked with the embroidery process was that in the art studio, the ladies would sing and share and speak about their problems and the children that they had lost because of HIV/AIDS. At last the ladies could unburden themselves without feeling they would be judged.

When I arrived for work in Hamburg in 2004, many people were dying. It was a disaster. And even though we were educating people, we were in a competition. We were running a race and we didn’t know who would win the race. As we all know, at that time our president was Thabo Mbeki, and our health minister was Mama Manto Tshabalala Msimang and they were refusing to roll out ARVs.  Now Dr Baker was caught in a battle, a battle between scientific knowledge that showed ARVs were effective in treating HIV/AIDS and Tshabalala’s idea that you could get better from HIV/AIDS just with the African potato and the beetroot and the garlic. Then  there was also a gentleman on the way to East London near Twecu who sold a cure in a two-litre bottle. And guess who won the battle? The guy who would give people two-litre bottles of his cure would get diarrhoea and die at his house. Manto Tshabalala with her potato and beetroot and garlic did not work out. Dr Baker won the battle because she introduced ARVs in the community. We won the race.

As I’ve mentioned, Dr Baker at that time had just recently been given a permit from the health department allowing her to go and work within the different communities.  She was working at 47 clinics in 119 villages all around the Peddie area. I had to go around with Dr Baker to these clinics. We would leave home at five in the morning and visit two clinics a day, sometimes three clinics, sometimes one. It would always depend on the distance to the clinics. And that is why I sometimes say, this is why my hands are shaking like this, because it was more than ten thousand people’s files I had to write in by hand. Even now I am not computer literate. But at least the folders never have technical issues like computers and they are always there."

Veliswa Mangcangaza:

"The years 2009 and 2010 have a remarkable significance. By then there were signs that we were fighting a winning battle. You could see people getting well after taking ARVs and there was a jolly mood in Hamburg as a whole. As Eunice was saying, women at the art studio and the treatment centre who had bottled their fear, grief and mourning were starting to voice their pain and suffering. Indeed, it was a time of narrating visually the infliction we were passing through. Carol as a professional artist and the women at the art project united and worked together to realise that dream. Their voices were heard and given a place, in a way suitable for each one.

In July 2010, besides the Altarpiece there was another Keiskamma artwork also on display at the National Arts Festival: a part of the Keiskamma Guernica Tapestry. At that time the name of the artwork had no meaning for me as I was not a history fan, even at school. Then, from Carol’s address, I heard that the first Guernica was a painting by the great mind of Picasso, deceased a long time ago.

In our tapestry there is a woman who has turned her back due to overwhelming despair and sorrow, to the point of throwing in the towel. The image is describing the people of Hamburg who were on the edge, with no hope, because of HIV/AIDS. There is an ox or cow that to me represents Dr Baker, full of strength, resilience and perseverance. The wound with blood I take as the feeling within her heart for the people of the village she had fallen in love with. A shrunken, dim sun tells us that the cloud of darkness that has been hanging over us is starting to disappear and gradually the light is about to emerge. There is light after darkness. Yes, we have come far."

Eunice Mangwane:

"Yes, a part of the Keiskamma Guernica  Tapestry was also introduced in Grahamstown. These are cow’s heads, and they represent the cows that were slaughtered from thinking that if you slaughter a cow for a person with HIV/Aids they will be healed. Like Veliswa, I was not involved in making the Keiskamma Guernica, but I was there, educating people about HIV/AIDS. As Veliswa is saying, there is a darkness; as you can see, it is dim, dull, dark. But the sun is shining there because after people were dying people started to live through the ARVs and then there was light. The guitar represents happiness and the book is probably the bible. There was hope and healing within the sadness."

Veliswa Mangcangaza:

"What I am remembering is, the orange background resembles us when we are doing our ritual celebrations—the abaqaba imbola (those that wear the clay mask on their face). That is a clay mixture of umchuntsa and umthoba (calamine lotion) that makes a red, yellow, or orange clay that we use. When you mix them it becomes that colour and that resembles us because we smear it on the face to act as a sunscreen or make up. This artwork is about us. I have talked about the resemblance. The artwork tells who we are, and it again tells us to take ownership of who we are because we are rich in mind. The Keiskamma Art Project needs to take that richness and show the world what the artists can do using their fingers, their hands. This way, we move higher and higher, until we reach the top."

Nozeti Makhubalo:

"We call the Keiskamma Guernica Tapestry Ukuzilela abalele ukuthula (Mourning for the late ones). As Eunice and Veliswa were saying, it is about our families and friends who passed away during the darkest time of HIV/AIDS. But this artwork also gives me happiness because it has a symbol of hope. You see the lady there with the candle— that’s the hope, because the light gives hope. Yes, there is sadness but there is hope on the way.

If you look at the bottom of the artwork, there is a lady holding a sick child. Personally, for me, it reminds me of holding my Aunty who died on my hands.

There is another artwork that shows how our lives changed here in Hamburg after ARVs became available. It is called Marriage of Nolulamo and Luthando—in isiXhosa, Umtshato kaNolulama no Luthando. Umtshato means marriage. Nolulamo and Luthando met and fell in love at out HIV treatment centre, as they were both patients there. What we are celebrating in this artwork is that they got married and with ARVs they can have children who will be free from HIV.

Talking of children, it reminds me of the Rose Altarpiece, which we like to call uNokwanda. May her soul rest in peace. Nokwanda was one of the heroes in our area who took up some orphans from her family. Nokwanda was a hero by doing that. In our culture—in our olden days, not in these days—you would not see an orphan because if a child lost its parents, the members of the family, they would support that child. If both the parents had passed away, and they had left four children, those children would be split amongst the family. The children would have mothers.

So Nokwanda stands up for her family, to take care of the children.

That is why, on this part of the Rose Altarpiece, it says, ‘Take me also for your child.’ Next to that, it says, ‘Ncedu’ndise ebantwaneni’ (Please take me to the children). It is about adoption. It is our custom actually in our culture to do that."

Siya Maswana:

"I believe uNokwanda is one of the best artworks by Keiskamma Art Project. It is very beautiful. That’s why they name it the Rose Altarpiece. Everyone likes it. As you can see, there is Nokwanda in front of the artwork. She is the main person, showing her strength as a woman. Definitely, when you see it, it gives you that feeling. You know what I mean? You can see the face of Nokwanda is smiling and is giving hope to the younger generation; she’s got that strength, a woman’s strength."

Veronica Betani:

"Siya is right. When you look at the face, the face is smiling. Behind that face there are some tears; there is pain. But in a woman you can’t see pain; it’s always covered with a smile. For me personally this artwork of Nokwanda is about a woman’s strength because Nokwanda is a woman taking care of the abandoned children. That is a very heart-ful strength, to look after a child. Because, to raise a child, it takes not only one person. As people used to say, it takes a village to raise a child. It’s not a simple thing, as one woman, to take on an orphan. Nokwanda was very loving and very brave."

Siya Maswana:

"The Rose Altarpiece is about children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Many families were also affected by the Covid pandemic but we were more resilient this time. The Covid Resilience Tapestry tells the story of how we experienced Covid in Hamburg. We had survivors but many people died. As you can see, we tell the story seasonally, moving from winter to summer. We were trying to show what was happening in that time. If you see the background, its dark first then it’s getting lighter; it’s getting greener. We were trying to bring hope to the people who were hit by Covid and we were trying to make a record for the next generation so they would know that in 2020 we had this disease. Basically, it is a book, a narrative. We were trying to write a book but artistically. You can see the characters and the poems. To me the Covid Resilience Tapestry is the best tapestry Keiskamma Art Project made between 2020 and 2022."

Cebo Mvubu:

"The Covid Resilience Tapestry that we made in 2020, we call Ukomelela, meaning ‘to be strong.’ The artwork shows that there are bad times but also good times. It was the toughest time but we adapted. To me, the important thing about this artwork is how we managed to cope with the things we were documenting, the things that we faced. You know, in that time it was difficult for people to meet each other so we had to find other ways to communicate. Now people have learnt new ways of doing things, like organising online meetings and cell phone banking. This is very important to me—it shows that, in the toughest times our people never lost hope; they managed to do things in other ways. It shows us that people can learn to adapt to their situation.

I like the symbol of the tree (indluka) that you can see on the tapestry. There, it is winter and it is bare.  Here, it is summer and it is full of leaves."

Siya Maswana:

"We started the tapestry during the time of level five, when we could not meet in the studio. People were working at home. We used to draw the design on small pieces of fabric and give them to the embroiderers. They would embroider at home, then bring the pieces back to the studio. Then they would take another piece. They worked at home in this way from level five till level three, I think, or four. This is how we did it and, fruitfully, every embroiderer in Keiskamma Art Project participated in the tapestry. It is moving that everyone had input on that tapestry. When we could meet again, we put it all together on hessian backing cloth."

Nozeti Makhubalo:

"The Covid Resilience Tapestry shows that we are the inspiration. We encourage others, no matter what affects us. We spread the word to the world and encourage other people not to lose hope. We are very proud to be the Keiskamma Art Project and we are proud of this artwork. We lost members of our families in the time of Covid but thankfully there are people we love who are still living.

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