An exhibition by Dr Sechaba Maape

Western modes of representing the landscape are challenged as a response to the colonial legacy of architecture in South Africa, and instead, Dr Sechaba Maape draws on indigenous knowledge from his home Kuruman, specifically his Setswana-speaking community as well as the first nation heritage of rock engravings from the Northern Cape region as an epistemological grounding. In this community, the land is a living being, more specifically the great water snake, “Noga Ya Metsi”. Maape builds on this principle, the notion of being alive or vitality, creating dialogue with the early scholars of the Negritude movement including Fanon and Sartre’s critique of Negritude, and especially Leopold Senghor’s interest in the vital force and rhythm.