Kusengenzeka noma yini: Wakithi singayibiza ngani lendawo?

Abstract

Kusengenzeka noma yini means ‘anything can still happen’, serving as a metaphorical phrase or a saying in isiZulu, which hints at the ambiguities of life within hostels. The phrase is interpretive, and multi-layered, reflecting the beauty, complexities, and systematic violence within the spheres of black social life in South Africa. Wakithi singayibiza ngani lendawo? means ‘what should we call this place?’ This is both a question and a double-sided statement, drawn from the everyday practice of yarning inside the hostel arena. South African hostels are congested and temporal, thus allowing for progress, failure, and the crafting of practices that include exploring life opportunities, self- determination, and recreation of freedom by the dwellers. Wakithi singayibiza ngani lendawo? is a critical question that encapsulate the feeling of yarning and provides a wide range of avenues to negotiate for a new image of hostels. For images that are real or authentic and challenge preconceived portrayal of black migrant residents in South African archives, see the exposé framework between the 1950s -1990s in the documentary series by Ernest Cole, Peter Magubane, Roger Meinjtes and Eli Weinberg. The practice of this resistance group of photographers exposed the injustices of the apartheid regime, while their approach is invasive and shows a violent gaze. It exposes the hostel residents as poor, needy, undignified, bitter and hopeless, and these negative elements overshadow the beautiful experiments that have always been practiced inside the hostel. The purpose of my praxis, through visual arts, is to explore these beautiful experiments inside the hostel by employing a wide range of mediums, such as drawing, sculpture installations, performance (video) and photography. It is a diverse approach that allows for new meanings and ideas to manifest, enabling a new image of hostels to emerge. The work or praxis serve to address the ‘missing narrative’ to reclaim the loss dignity of hostel communities. Inside the hostel engage with intimate objects, and interpreting different types of sounds within the conceptual frame of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval (2019) which is drawn from the work of Saidiya Hartman. The wayward framework and a mode of close narration, influences my philosophical as I navigate hostels to find a newly informed image that is far more human and comprehensive.