Minnie Dlamini – The Storyteller
Minnie Dlamini: The Storyteller Minnie Dlamini hasn’t given a detailed interview in three years. Deliberately so. Her brother Khosini died in September 2019 after having suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and being on life support for 23 days before succumbing to his condition. “Devastating. Absolutely devastating,” she says of the ways in which his death […]
Connie Chiume and Minnie Dlamini: Generations of Film
Connie Chiume is the darling of SA film and television. From teaching through the 1976 student uprising in Soweto to taking up a career as an actress, her story is one of working through an era when the creative arts weren’t seen as viable prospects in our country to being celebrated on the international stage. […]
Inside Manthe Ribane’s Museum of Belief, Optimism, and Solidarity
There was a girl. Teal lipstick, fluorescent disco pants, and a sharp bowl cut, razored bald on the sides, with a waist-long braid at each temple framing her face. “I’m a cartoon character,” she tells one camera while the screen cuts to her dancing in a Johannesburg street. She’s practically bursting with a magnetic charm […]
Tony Gum: Find Your People and Move With Them
Being an artist is a lot like being a teenager. It’s a time of simultaneous omnipotence and powerlessness, according to Chris Kraus, as you live so intensely inside your own head that there isn’t a difference between reality and your imagination. You’re the master of your own universe, discovering and making the world all at […]
Manthe Ribane and Tony Gum: The Storytellers
Every story has a beginning. Our origins inform who we are and are at the heart of our identity. We are all storytellers, ultimately, and our stories play a definitive role in how we evolve as beings. Africa’s most loved storyteller, Multichoice, is passionate about showcasing them and the artists who create them. This September, […]
DBN Gogo: The Meister
In so far as music experiences go, you won’t easily forget one by DBN Gogo. I call it an experience because blithely labeling it a set doesn’t quite articulate the encounter. You see, Mandisa Radebe is intimately acquainted with music because she was student of groove. Her university days saw her attend to her law […]
Riky Rick: A Supreme Reign
A star was born with Riky Rick. One that commanded the attention of every room he walked into, one that demanded the respect of every stage he filled. If his demeanour in private didn’t let you know, the intensity with which he engaged the public did. Riky Rick was undeniable. On July 13, 1987, Terrence […]
Karabo Poppy: Walking Her Own Path
They say an artist’s greatest inspirations are found in their surroundings. Salvadore Dali needed the landscape, light, and ‘geological peacefulness’ of Port Lligat, his home, to create his finest works. Rich Mnisi credits the women in his family as his inspiration. Speaking of his great-grandmother, he said, “the stories about her and my understanding of […]
Rich Mnisi: Exploring Uncharted Territories, Stretching Boundaries
There’s a rich history of the northernmost tribes of South Africa embracing womanhood as a tool of empowerment. The Balobedu have for centuries had a matrilineal line of succession in their monarchy with the Modjadji throne, wherein only women can accede to the throne and rule as the paramount of the people. In VhaVenda royal […]
The Innovation of Dreams
“I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am rich, I am that [redacted],” in the words of Yung Baby Tate. When “I Am” dropped in 2020, we needed something to give us hope, uplift us more. Is music always the answer? Perhaps not, but money almost always gives us the power to find an answer. […]
God of the Game. AKA for The Showmax Issue
Kiernan Forbes begins his Showmax documentary, Orchestra on the Square, saying “Excellence to me is a mind state. The gift that I’ve been given, I believe is a gift from God, and God is the perfect example of excellence. God is excellence. And I consider myself the god of the game.” In Greek mythology extreme […]
Her Majesty, The Queen. Busiswa for The Showmax Issue
At the apex of an artist’s creativity lies licence. Definitively, poetic licence is “the freedom an artist or writer has to change details, distort facts, or ignore the usual rules.” This doesn’t necessarily mean that lies are being shared; consider, rather, that conventions of storytelling are shifted to meet the vision of the storyteller. Bending […]