KwaZulu-Natal is a home to many well-known historical sites and landmarks. The province has been a stronghold to several political factions that have shaped South African politics, identities and beliefs. Like its people, the province’s landscape is also diverse, changing from lush sub-tropical Indian Ocean shoreline to the gentle rolling hills of the Midlands and the alpine areas of the Drakensberg and Lebombo mountains. KwaZulu-Natal shares a border with Mozambique and Eswatini in the north, and adjoins Lesotho and the Eastern Cape in the south. Contemporary photography reflects the diversity of the landscapes and people.
Photographers like Mandisa Buthelezi, Lindokuhle Ndlovu, Thobani Khumalo, Thembi Mthembu and Thalente Khomo have grappled with themes about belief systems, religion and gender, issues that play out in their works against the beautiful landscapes in KZN as a backdrop.
Religion and beliefs transcending time and place
Lindokuhle Ndlovu’s documentation of rural KwaZulu-Natal regions, such as eMtshezi (Estcourt), presents scenes that evoke a sense of bygone times, offering a reflective look at daily life in these areas. One of his photographs was taken of women members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) while on their way to a funeral ceremony (Fig. 1). The barren landscape and dirt road presents a moment in country life. One would be hard pressed to date the photo as rural people live simple lives and there has been very limited development here. Ndlovu reveals in his artist statement that while walking and talking it was expressed, “how the village hasn’t changed a bit over the past decades”. The ZCC is one of the largest African Independent Churches, with approximately 6 million members in South Africa (Kgatle 2024). Throughout South African socio-political history, churches have played a crucial role in community building and the social justice movement—an idea that also connects to themes in Thalente Khomo’s work.
Thalente Khomo’s Umnikelo (Fig. 2) is an ode to her late grandmother, who was a member of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (Hart 2022a). The folded Manyano[1] uniform, with the white hat carefully placed on top of the red clothing, is held up by a hidden figure, masking a vulnerability that can be interpreted as silence in grief and modesty, as one remembers the life of a loved one. Hart (2022a) writes, “Khomo has fond memories of falling asleep to her grandmother singing gospel songs. The title of the piece translates to ‘offering.’ The work pays homage to a beloved elder who lived her life in the service of others.” The symbolism of the uniform plays a significant role in reinforcing the identity shaped by the church and the sense of belonging to the community: “The strong woman who is everywhere but nowhere; but on Sundays, she really comes out in her regalia. Ironed and starched, just the outfit alone is striking enough.” (Hart 2022b).
Mandisa Buthelezi’s work documenting the Nazareth Baptist Church, also reveals themes similar to Khumalo and Ndlvou’s works that extend into gender, as all the images presented have women as central figures. Ubere (2024) writes,
“Only three from the crowd, clad in white, are visible. The leftmost woman is the least seen. Her clothing gleams the brightest. Her partly revealed face shows the direction of her gaze. She seems unaware of her presence in the photograph being made. The same can apply to the woman on the right, who has turned in a three-quarter profile. The shawl on her head, raised presumably by her hair, is shaped like a spire. And her eyes are either downcast or completely shut, as if in a state of communion with the divine. The girl in the centre takes a frontal pose. Her head is tilted sideways and downwards. Her gaze is direct and, behind the folds of her shawl, seems like an anchor to which a viewer’s eye is pulled. The non-uniformity of their poses is counterbalanced by the uniformity of their clothing, which gives a hint of the physical appearance of the crowd. Behind them there is a scatter of blurred points.”
The threads of women, religion, uniform, and the non-confrontational or non-present gaze (Figs 1, 2, and 3) reinforce a hegemonic notion of gendered roles: to be quiet, committed and unseen. Noting the complexities of what it means to be a woman within a post-apartheid South African context, Jamal (2023) writes: “The Rights of Woman is no smaller matter. As Naomi Wolf reminds us in The Beauty Myth, women, paradoxically, are less free today, more insidiously compromised by an age-old entrapment, imprisonment, and bondage to the laws of men. The representation and value of women, tragically, ‘is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power.’ That today we find ourselves still fighting for women’s rights – more so in South Africa, a toxically misogynistic society – confirms Wolf’s dark prognosis.”
However, it would be reductive to view these women solely through this lens, as Umnikelo celebrates the power of a family member—a woman with agency and strength. The image, although vulnerable, upholds this sense of power. Pictures that deliberately avert the gaze and engage on these tensions of gender representation include Thobani Khumalo’s Uthwele (Fig. 4) and Thembi Mthembu’s Limitless (Fig. 5).
Gendered inquiry and self-representation
Khumalo employs traditional domestic items from home to amplify his message and his questions on gender and culture. The image, as Khumalo states, is “a visual inquiry into the streams of consciousness found in the isiZulu term of uthwele. The images prompt conversations of female independence in the post-apartheid South Africa. It grapples with the positioning of feminine energy in relation to the engendering of domestic utensils (isigqiki, mini bench) in the Zulu context.”
The image portrays his friend Nosihe, who was pregnant when the picture (Fig. 4) was taken. The isigqiki, which weighs on her head of braids, while her hand rests on her ballooned stomach, and holds like a scale, a thick red blanket, presents an image that toys with new life and the balance of woman/motherhood.
Mthembu uses self-portraiture as a means to embrace her body (Walsh-Vorster 2020), using photography to amplify her androgynous features and to assert her identity. Mthembu’s Limitless (Fig. 5) deliberately tries to subvert the society’s beauty standards, as she introduces layers of the same image to represent “an inaccessible projected space” setting boundaries (albeit digital frames) and suggesting she is not to be played with. External sexualised projections of her are not welcome. She states, “now this is when an individual meditates on the mystery of self-belief and stays in their safe confined state of mind.”
In the image, she is nude, and nudity in photography is a vulnerable process. Her direct gaze into the camera and stern facial expression present an act of defiance, declaring: “Yes, I am nude; look at me, but you will look at me how I want to be looked at.”
Tradition and culture in contemporary representations
As we revisit the broader presentations of culture and traditions in KwaZulu-Natal, Buthelezi’s work highlights the lasting allure of culture in the province. For her, cataloguing and documenting African culture through visual art is a way to preserve her own culture and those around it. Her photographs, Amabhungu (Fig. 6.1) and Omama BakwaNyandu (Fig. 6.2), reflect her engagement with Nguni societal values. Buthelezi states: “Amabhungu depicts the duty of young men to look after cattle in a traditional Zulu household. The image shows two young men standing inside a kraal with cattle after bringing them in from the open veld.”
In Omama BakwaNyandu Buthelezi explains the scene depicting the traditional clothing worn by the wives of men from the Nyandu clan, located in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal near Cato Ridge. The attire, adorned with intricate beadwork and animal skins, is custom-made and presented to the wives for wearing at family gatherings and ceremonies. It signifies their complete acceptance and recognition as full members of the Nyandu family.
Conclusion
The richness of themes and the layers of complexity of identity offered in these contemporary photographic works remind one of the romance and centuries-old traditions that have shaped people and culture, particularly in the KwaZulu-Natal regions. These works document the essence of rural life and communal identity, while also reflecting the resilience and continuity of these communities in the face of socio-political change. Through the lens of photographers like Lindokuhle Ndlovu, we are reminded of the deep connections between place, tradition and modern-day realities. Mandisa Buthelezi’s work also plays with the notions of time and pays homage to the traditions which persist. These photographs invite viewers to reflect on the past while considering how history, culture and identity intersect in the present, offering a commentary on the enduring impact of cultural practices in shaping the future.
These pictures serve as powerful visual narratives that not only preserve the essence of cultural traditions but also challenge us to consider the role of art in documenting and transforming identity, as seen in the works of Thobani Khumalo and Thembi Mthembu. They offer an opportunity to continue the dialogue between tradition and modernity, shaped by the passage of time and the changes in the land.
References
Hart, G. 2022a. Mourning the shadows: A reflection of Women’s Day. Culna 76: 45-46. https://nationalmuseumpublications.co.za/mourning-the-shadows-a-reflection-of-womens-day
Hart, G. 2022b. Borrow to beautify: A journey of becoming. Art Times 203: 62-65. https://issuu.com/arttimes/docs/art_times_march_22_issuu/s/14960427
Jamal, A. 2023. ArtBankSA presents ’The Rights of Woman‘. AT Features, 29 August 2023. https://arttimes.co.za/at-feature-ashraf-jamal-artbanksa-presents-the-rights-of-woman
Kgatle, M.S. 2024. “Justice be with you”: Transcending the peace talk rhetoric in the Zion Christian Church. Theologia Viatorum 48(1): a278. https://doi.org/10.4102/tv.v48i1.278
Mthembu, L. 2025. Lindokuhle Ndlovu. Contemporary Archive Project. https://contemporaryarchiveproject.com/2024/08/12/lindokuhle-ndlovu
Walsh-Vorster, N. 2020. Talking bodies: Photographers use self-portraits to tell stories. Mail & Guardian, 17 October 2020. https://mg.co.za/friday/2020-10-17-talking-bodies-photographers-use-self-portraits-to-tell-stories
Ubere, Z. 2024. AmaNazaretha: A photograph by Mandisa Buthelezi. Tender Photo, 15 May 2024. https://tenderphoto.substack.com/p/mandisa-buthelezi
[1] The Methodist Women’s Prayer and Service Union (MWP&SU), or better known as the Women’s Manyano, is a women’s organisation within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA).
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