Igqirha Lendlela

This sculpture comprises the parts of a costume that Hlobo wore for a performance entitled Igqirha Lendlela in which he wore a skirt made of men’s ties, a black leather biker jacket and a large rubber hump. He crossed Cape Town in this attire, going from Green Market Square to Khayelitsha. The hump suggests for Hlobo the burdens that people carry daily, but also the historical ‘baggage’ with which South Africans grapple as they try to forge a new country.

The title is a reference to a Xhosa song known commonly as the ‘Click Song’ and famously sung by Miriam Makeba. It is about the tok-tokkie beetle, which, in Xhosa mythology, is a symbol of good luck and of travelling or journeying (literally and metaphorically). 

Artwork courtesy of Johannesburg Art Gallery.