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“My project focuses on the dilemma of personal responsibility in times of crisis. As an individual, do you fight for something greater for yourself in a collective struggle, or do you try to achieve the best for yourself? Furthermore, how does one deal with the reality of the world and personal circumstances they were born into? How does one’s social class influence their ideology and aspirations? I use my family as a conduit to unpack these questions in my book project.”
We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here, is Makepe’s attempt to trace his family lineage or, perhaps, a family tree between South Africa and Botswana through staged photographs as re-enactments of the past. The idea for this body of work came to Makepe during the 2015 #RhodesMustFall protests at the University of Cape Town, where Makepe was a student. Travelling in an elevator on campus, Makepe found himself sharing the elevator with an RMF student protestor wearing a t-shirt depicting the face of the late South African, Pan-Africanist Congress leader, Zephania Mothopeng; who is Makepe’s uncle. This encounter inspired a body of work anchored in the story of Makefe’s grandfather, a jazz musician, crossing from South Africa to Botswana and the role his brother Mothopeng played during the struggle against apartheid.
This body of work critically examines the legacy of South African apartheid and its lasting aftermath, inviting considerations of those who left their homes and were forced to find ‘citizenship’ in neighbouring countries like Botswana. The works also address notions of belonging - a sense of self and community (or family). We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here questions what re building and re living or re homing mean after a catastrophe. Here, Makepe makes visible other postcolonial (post-apartheid) temporalities and political conditions. Makepe taps into his family history and photo archive to narrate the story of his exiled grandfather, and how his exile affected his children and, inadvertently, his grandchildren. To place your family photos into a gallery space (inclusive of digital spaces) transforms them from personal documentation into a site of critique, converging the political, historical and familial. Family photographs are highly charged, perpetuating an idyllic image of the nuclear family, and the documenting of important family events. Even though Makepe’s practice does borrow from his family photo archive, in this body of work, he employs his artistic practice to show collective memory and produce his own version of documentary photography.
In this sequence of images, Makepe tells the story of how his family arrived in Botswana. Makepe's mother becomes the protagonist or conduit through which these family stories are enacted. The stories are not just personal, but also interspersed with Southern African history, where his grandparents originated, escaping the apartheid regime to Botswana in the 1950’s. This contrast is intriguing as it offers the viewer insight that is both personal and informative, giving us a glimpse into the consequences of the paths laid out for Africanist futures in that time. Makepe’s photographs oscillate between staging real-life past events to reimagining the past from oral history, to imagining scenes based on symbolic representations of a feeling. The re-enactments and restaging fictionalise these moments, to “produce a liberated and fertile plot that grows out of its violent past to generate new meanings.” This allows for the image to move beyond one-sided political frames of reference. The staged photographs are not just evidence of history and residual memory; they are affective objects that incite an emotional response towards the photographed person and the scenes depicted. Makepe’s ‘staging technique’ offers a way of looking at a family archive without being constrained by the stereotypes surrounding ‘family’ photographs.
By avoiding ‘replicating’ history, Makepe shields the viewer from experiencing and perpetuating the same violence, and instead applies imagination as a method of ‘looking’ and making visible realities that are not detectable to the human eye. When listening closely to the images; especially the re-enacted or staged photos, one hears a hum; frantic, fractured, a kind of teetering under the weight of a traumatic and violent past, perhaps even the grandfather’s quiet regrets around leaving apartheid South Africa. Makepe’s photography occupies an ‘archival glitch’ that re-evaluates, interrogates and articulates alternate forms of vision and visuality. In this way, the photographs estrange familiar conventions by opening up a world that is not instantly visible. As argued by Elizabeth Edwards, “the photograph awakens a desire to know that which it cannot show.”
Makepe’s work with its cinematic or Renaissance-like framing, stages moments in which the characters (members of Makepe’s family) recreate scenes of the ‘everyday’; a church service, the sickness of a loved one; with more atmospheric and metaphorical resonance, an older woman (Makepe’s mother and the protagonist of this narrative) stands shin deep in the waters of the Gaborone Dam.
In citing Siona O’Connell, Makepe’s works “offer a chance to construct a new whole, recognising that real freedom – being free from domination – comes in all sorts of guises and is distinct from emancipation at the polls.” This is Makepe’s way of making sense of a past and present that he found himself entangled in through his family history, and also his ruminations about the future. Listening to Makepe one is invited to wonder; to sit with and beyond the image, beyond the emotions of anger and shame that easily ensnare us. The viewer is asked to formulate new ways of encountering and engaging with these images that move us beyond our comfort zones. What new questions can we ask about history as a continuum? What sorts of Black Futures are created from between Borders? What kind of processes of silencing and absenting constitute the post-apartheid narratives? What is the authority of that absence in affirming broad cultural and historical realities? Furthermore, how have the formerly marginalized been assembled and represented in the Southern African political landscape?
We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here forces us to think about forms of violence during apartheid which made certain Black futures only possible in Botswana (and other neighbouring countries) and pushed a Black fugitivity, and how they manifest and affect our democratic present as (southern) Africans.
“Umklamo wami igxile enkingeni yokuzibophezela komuntu ngezikhathi zobunzima. Njengomuntu, ingabe ulwela injogo enkulu yezinselela okuhlangatshezwane nazo, noma uzama ukuzizuzela okungcono kakhulu? Ngaphezu kwalokho, umuntu ubhekana kanjani nempilo yangempela yezwe nezimo zomuntu azalelwe kuzo? Isigaba somuntu senhlalo siyithonya kanjani imibono nezifiso zakhe? Ngisebenzisa umdeni wami njengendlela yokuhambisa le mibuzo emsebenzini wami wezincwadi.”
Asikhethanga Ukuzalwa Lapha, umzamo kaMakepe wokulandelela uhlu lozalo lwakubo noma, mhlawumbe, isihlahla somndeni phakathi kweNingizimu Afrika neBotswana ngezithombe ezisesiteji njengemidlalo yesikhathi esedlule. Umbono walolu hlaka lomsebenzi lwafika kuMakepe ngesikhathi kunemibhikisho ye#RhodesMustFall kowezi-2015 eNyuvesi yaseKapa (University of Cape Town), lapho uMakepe ayengumfundi khona. Ehamba ngekheshi esikhungweni semfundo ephakeme, uMakepe wazithola esekheshini nomfundi we-RMF owayebhikisha egqoke isikibha esinobuso bomholi wePan-Africanist Congress ongasekho waseNingizimu Afrika, uZephania Mothopeng; ongumalume kaMakepe. Lokhu kuhlangana kwagqugquzela umsebenzi ogxile endabeni kayisemkhulu kaMakefe, umculi we-jazz, ewela esuka eNingizimu Afrika eya eBotswana kanye nendima eyadlalwa umfowabo uMathopeng ngesikhathi somzabalazo wokulwa nobandlululo.
Lesi sigungu somsebenzi sihlolisisa ifa lobandlululo lwaseNingizimu Afrika kanye nemiphumela yalo ehlala njalo, ukucatshangelwa kwalabo abashiya amakhaya abo baphoqeleka ukuthi bathole ‘ubuzwe’ emazweni angomakhelwane njengeBotswana. Lemisebenzi iphinde ikhulume ngemibono yokuba yingxenye - umuzwa wokuzazi kanye nomphakathi (noma umndeni). Asikhethanga Ukuzalwa Lapha siyabuza ukuthi kusho ukuthini ukwakha kabusha nokuphila kabusha noma ukuhlala ekhaya ngemva kwenhlekelele. Lapha, uMakepe wenza kubonakale ezinye izimo zesikhashana kanye nezimo zezepolitiki zangemva kobukoloni (post-apartheid). UMakepe ungena emlandweni womndeni wakhe kanye nomlando yezithombe ukuze alandise indaba kamkhulu wakhe owayedingisiwe, nokuthi ukudingiswa kwakhe kwazithinta kanjani izingane zakhe, ngokungaqondile, nabazukulu bakhe. Ukubeka izithombe zomndeni wakho endaweni yegalari (okuhlanganisa nezikhala zedijithali) kuziguqula zisuke emibhalweni yomuntu siqu zibe indawo lokugxeka, eliguqulela ezombusazwe, ezomlando nezomndeni. Izithombe zomndeni zikhokhiswa kakhulu, ziqhubekisela phambili isithombe esihle somndeni, kanye nokuqoshwa kwezenzakalo ezibalulekile zomndeni. Noma umkhuba kaMakepe uboleka ingobo yomlando yezithombe zomndeni wakhe, kulo msebenzi, usebenzisa umkhuba wakhe wobuciko ukukhombisa inkumbulo ehlangene futhi akhiqize inguqulo yakhe yokuthwebula izithombe.
Kulolu chungechunge lwezithombe, uMakepe ulandisa indaba yokuthi umndeni wakhe wafika kanjani eBotswana. Umama kaMakepe uba umlingiswa oyinhloko noma umgudu okwenziwa ngawo lezi zindaba zomndeni. Lezi zindaba akuzona nje ezomuntu siqu, kodwa futhi zihlangene nomlando waseNingizimu Afrika, lapho ugogo nomkhulu wakhe badabuka khona, ebalekela umbuso wobandlululo waya eBotswana ngowezi-1950. Lokhu kuhluka kuyathakazelisa njengoba kunikeza umbukeli ukuqonda okuqondene nomuntu siqu futhi okufundisayo, okusinika amazwibela emiphumeleni yezindlela ezenzelwe ikusasa lama-Afrika ngaleso sikhathi. Izithombe zikaMakepe zizungeza phakathi kwezenzakalo ezingokoqobo zesikhathi esidlule kuya ekucabangeni kabusha okwedlule kusukela kumlando oxoxwayo, kuya ekucabangeni ngezigcawu ezisekelwe emifanekisweni engokomfanekiso yomuzwa. Ukulingisa kabusha nokuhlelwa kabusha kwenza lezi zikhathi eziqanjiwe, "ukuze kukhiqizwe itulo elikhululekile nelivundile elikhula lidlule esikhathini salo esidlule esinodlame ukuze liveze izincazelo ezintsha." Lokhu kuvumela isithombe ukuthi sidlulele kuhlaka lwezethenjwa zepolitiki yohlangothi olulodwa. Izithombe ezisesiteji azizona nje ubufakazi bomlando nenkumbulo eyinsalela; ziyizinto ezithinta inhliziyo ezikhuthaza ukusabela kwemizwa kumuntu othwetshuliwe kanye nezigcawu ezibonisiwe. ‘Isu lesiteji’ likaMakepe linikeza indlela yokubuka ingobo yomlando yomndeni ngaphandle kokuvinjelwa imibono engaguquki ezungeze izithombe ‘zomndeni’.
Ngokugwema umlando ‘wokuphindaphinda’, uMakepe uvikela umbukeli ekuhlangabezaneni nokuqhubekisela phambili udlame olufanayo, futhi esikhundleni salokho usebenzisa umcabango njengendlela ‘yokubheka’ nokwenza izinto ezingokoqobo ezibonakalayo ezingabonakali emehlweni omuntu. Lapho ulalele ngokucophelela izithombe; ikakhulukazi izithombe ezenziwe kabusha noma ezenziwe esiteji, umuntu uzwa umsindo; ukuhlanya, ukuphuka, uhlobo lokunyakaza ngaphansi kwesisindo sesikhathi esidlule esibuhlungu nesinodlame, mhlawumbe nokuzisola kukamkhulu ngokuthula ngokushiya iNingizimu Afrika yobandlululo. Ukuthwebula kwezithombe kukaMakepe kuqukethe 'inkimbinkimbi yengobo yomlando' ehlola kabusha, iphenye futhi iveze ezinye izindlela zokubona nokubukeka. Ngale ndlela, izithombe zihlukanisa izivumelwano ezijwayelekile ngokuvula umhlaba ongabonakali ngaso leso sikhathi. Njengoba u-Elizabeth Edwards ephikisana, "isithombe sivusa isifiso sokwazi lokho esingenakukubonisa."
Umsebenzi kaMakepe ngohlaka lwawo lwesinema noma olufana ukuvuselelwa kanje, ubeka izikhathi lapho abalingisi (amalungu omndeni kaMakepe) bephinda bakha izigcawu ‘zansuku zonke’; inkonzo yesonto, ukugula kothandekayo; ngokuzwakala komkhathi kanye nezingathekiso, owesifazane osekhulile (umama kaMakepe kanye nomlingiswa oyinhloko wale ndaba) bazihambela emanzini angashoni eDamini laseGaborone.
Ecaphuna uSiona O'Connell, imisebenzi kaMakepe "inikeza ithuba lokwakha komke okusha, eqaphela ukuthi inkululeko yangempela - ukukhululeka ekubusweni - iza ngazo zonke izinhlobo zokucatshangelwa futhi ihlukile ekukhululekeni okhethweni." Lena indlela kaMakepe yokwenza umqondo wesikhathi esedlule nesamanje azithola engene shí kuyo ngomlando womndeni wakhe, kanye nemibono yakhe ngekusasa. Ukulalela uMakepe ubiza ukuba umuntu azibuze; ukuhlala nangaphandle kwesithombe, ngale kwemizwa yentukuthelo nehlazo esibamba kalula. Isibukeli siyacelwa ukuba sakhe izindlela ezintsha zokuhlangana nokuxhumana nalezi zithombe ezisidlulisela ngale kwezindawo zethu zokunethezeka. Yimiphi imibuzo emisha esingayibuza ngomlando njengokuqhubeka? Yiziphi izinhlobo zabaNsundu ezidalwe kusukela phakathi kweMingcele? Hlobo luni lwezinqubo zokuthulisa nokungabi bikho ezihlanganisa ukulandisa kwangemva kobandlululo? Liyini igunya lalokho kungabibikho ekuqinisekiseni amaqiniso abanzi amasiko nomlando? Phezu kwalokho, ngabe labo abebekade bencishiwe baqoqwe kanjani futhi bamelwa kanjani kwezombusazwe eNingizimu Afrika?
Asikhethanga Ukuzalwa Lapha kusiphoqa ukuthi sicabange ngezinhlobo zodlame ngesikhathi sobandlululo olwenza ikusasa labaNsundu elaba khona kuphela eBotswana (nakwamanye amazwe angomakhelwane) futhi kwaphusha ukubaleka kwabantu abaNsundu, nokuthi bazibonakalisa futhi bathinte kanjani isimo sethu sentando yeningi njengama-Afrika (aseningizimu).