uMakhosi Gadisa, from the Country Girls series; from The i-jusi Portfolio Number 3: South African Photographs

Inscriptions

Signed, on reverse, upper left, in graphite: Sabelo Mlangeni; numbered, lower left, on reverse, in graphite: 6/50; Embossed, lower right: [i-jusi symbol]

Label

Three figures are captured in a moment of joy and flirtatious intimacy against a plain brick background. Sabelo Mlangeni documents everyday queer African life. Umakhosi Gadisa is from his Country Girls series, captures the glamour and perseverance of queer and trans people in the South African countryside. Many queer people in the countryside work as Zulu healers called sangomas. The title, uMakhosi Gadisa, refers to the ancestral wives of sangomas, who are often the same gender as the healers. Mlangeni’s evocation of a Zulu concept to represent three gay men in a warm embrace is part of his desire to represent queer African experiences that are often erased and deemed as “unAfrican.”

From the 2023 exhibition Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, curated by Alexandra Thomas, Curatorial Research Associate

Course History

WGSS 10.01, Sex, Gender and Society, Douglas Moody, Winter 2021

HIST 66/AAAS 15, History of Africa Since 1800, Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, Winter 2021

THEA 10.64/AAAS 54.05/WGSS 66.15, Feminist and Queer Africa on Stage and Screen, Laura Edmondson, Winter 2022

Theater 10.64, African and African-American Studies 54.05, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 66.15, Feminist and Queer Africa, Laura Edmondson, Spring 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program – Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Colleen Lannon, Summer 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Mokhtar Bouba, Summer 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

Writing 2.05, Why Write, Anyway?, Erkki Mackey, Fall 2023

Writing 5.24, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

Writing 5.25, Photographic Representations, Amanda Wetsel, Fall 2023

Exhibition History

Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, and Northeast Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 22, 2023–May 25, 2024.

Provenance

Marina and Andrew E. Lewin, New York, New York; lent to present collection, 2013; given to present collection, 2018.

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