Keiskamma Art Project

The attribute human… is not self-evident or assured. … Those who were to be enslaved and colonised first had to lose their human equality. … The work of decoloniality in Africa, therefore, becomes a search for completeness through the recovery, restoration and recognition of the equal belonging of black people to the world.” (Mpofu and Steyn 2021:1).
“There are differences between the discourse of language and of material culture, and one of the most important of these is that, like ourselves but unlike words, objects have a brutally physical existence, each occupying its own place in time and space. This means that objects… always retain an intrinsic link with the original context from which they came because they are always the stuff of its stuff, no matter how much they may be repeatedly
reinterpreted.” (Pearce 1995:14).

In 2000, Carol Hofmeyr’s response to neglect and poverty in the face of HIV/Aids and systemic marginalisation in Hamburg, Eastern Cape, was to restore dignity by founding a holistic restoration movement that prioritised health and creativity. With investment in skills from people around the world, the Keiskamma Art Project (KAP) was created, producing iconic tapestries that are integral to health and wellbeing.

Two years into leading KAP, I witnessed the interwoven impacts of art on community. Veronica Betani, a founding artist and seamstress, recounted her life story of both suffering and resilience in the light of HIV and related conditions as indistinguishable from the making of the Keiskamma Guernica (2010), a protest piece against the negligence of the South African government in its response to the disease. As the sole providing mother of three, grandmother to six, and now KAP’s lead in innovation, her life story is preserved materially and in memory for perpetuity within this tapestry.

Our Sacred Ocean (2022), a more recent tapestry, drew on the village elders’ memories of their ancestors and the sea, making the spiritually sacred nature of the ocean tangible. As evidence of our heritage, it speaks clearly against any exploitation of the local coastline. Similarly, the Covid Resilience Tapestry (2021) captured a community’s day-by-day adaptation to the pandemic. These tapestries preserve history and shape the culture of both the community and the country in a way that re-centres the focus from dominant narratives to lived experiences of the artists themselves. Artists and embroiderers “name themselves” (Mpofu and Steyn 2021:1), redefining what it means to be “human” in a once-contested category.

In rural contexts, communities face intersectional challenges that sometimes feel impossible to change. Iconic tapestries become agents for a future with increased freedoms. They provide sustainable income, platforms for meaningful dialogues, and exposure to multiple stakeholders and changemakers with resources.

Economist Amartya Sen defined development as the removal of unfreedoms that prevent people from living the lives “they value and have reason to value” (Sen 1999: 18). He emphasised development as freedom, but noted that different kinds of freedoms (economic, social and physical) enable one another.

When Betani accompanied Umlibo (2023), the climate change advocacy tapestry made in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to COP28 in Dubai, a deeply moved President Cyril Ramaphosa asked her a simple question: What can the government do to help a community like yours? “Give people the internet,” she said — a simple yet profound response, emphasising empowerment for all, not just herself, as the root of true freedom.

Yet, the word ‘freedom’ remains controversial in a context shaped by marginalisation. An overemphasis on equality as perception can eclipse the need to confront the structural conditions that divide us. Inclusivity as a mere ‘look’ is not enough to create change in the lives of KAP’s beneficiaries. Herein lies an important difference in quality partnerships. Industry partners are needed for periods beyond a single project phase or event, with relationships fuelled by reciprocal value and meaningful exchange. This approach supports longer-term development indicators in Sen’s sense, such as upward mobility, intergenerational care, women determining their own lives and those of their families (sustaining the nutrition and nurture to see their dependants through school and, in many cases, tertiary education), solidarity across divides, and faith in democratic citizenship.

Merging the challenges of development with resilience in the creative arts industry enables dignified work, while simultaneously producing artworks that stand as enduring testimonies to culture – always “the stuff of [their] stuff, no matter how much they may be repeatedly reinterpreted” (Pearce 1995:14). From the perspective of corporate social responsibility, the narrative must shift: investment into the arts in South Africa should be treated not as a luxury, but as a necessity.

Our commitment, as the Keiskamma Art Project, to how art is created and what it influences means that any support or investment equates to structural change and development that is qualitatively exceptional and quantitatively possible to measure over the long term.