Panel Discussion
Celebrating Xhosa Heritage: George Pemba and SEK Mqhayi in conversation with Lovedale Press
08/03/2023 Announcements, Events
Victory of the Word was founded in 2020 by artist Athi-Patra Ruga and Anelisa Mangcu as their response to lockdown. The primary focus of VOW is to bring awareness to the Lovedale Press which is celebrating its 200 year anniversary in 2023. By highlighting the importance of the press they hope to enable it to remain open, rather than being forced to permanently shutter due to lack of funding and support.
The Lovedale Press has published hundreds of works in its history with covers designed by some of the most well-known black South African artists. These original artworks form part of the archive which is under threat.
Please join us this Saturday, 11 March 2023, at 11am to hear Anelisa Mangcu, Dr Athambile Masola and Sanele Ntshingana talk to us about the press, the poets, writers and artists who have contributed to this legacy.
The panel will be steered by Phillippa Duncan. Framing the content of this talk are a magnificent pair of portraits painted in 1970 by George Pemba. Titled ‘Transkei Woman’ and ‘The Poet’ these provide the backdrop to the panel and areas of discussion.
The Panelists
Dr Athambile Masola received her PhD from Rhodes University. Her dissertation was an exploration of black women’s life writing with a particular focus on Noni Jabavu and Sisonke Msimang’s memoirs. Her primary research focuses on black women’s life writing and historiography. Her research is also informed by the early 20th-century newspaper archive in South Africa (particularly written in isiXhosa). She is primarily concerned with the nature of erasure and the ways in which multiple forms of reading a variety of texts can inform archival research.
Sanele Ntshingana is a PhD candidate at the Historical Studies department under the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative and a lecturer in the African languages department at UCT. His current doctoral research in historical studies maps out how amaXhosa’s political life and ideas of political authority in the ‘deep’ past were discursively maneuvered and shaped by African intellectuals in the vernacular press and other Black registrars in the early nineteenth and early twentieth century including the works of S.E.K Mqhayi.
Anelisa Mangcu is the founder of Under The Aegis, a curatorial and art advisory company that produces local and international exhibitions. She is also the co-founder of Victory of The Word NPC, an organisation that works on funding and investment strategies to stimulate and preserve art entities such as Lovedale Press.
Panel Discussion
DATE | Saturday, 11 March at 11 am
VENUE | 37A Somerset Road, De Waterkant, Cape Town