Skip to main content.
Center for Human Rights and the Arts Logo and Link Home
CCHRA Logo and Link Home
  • About
  • Our People
    • Core Team
    • Fellows and visitors
  • Masters Program
  • Events Calendar
  • Talk Series
  • Publications
  • International Festivals
  • Activism in Process
  • Art Commissions
  • Resources
  • Workshops
  • Research Grants
  • News + Opportunities
    • Newsroom
    • Opportunities
Art Commissions
Sethembile Msezane:Dwala Lam'

Sethembile Msezane:
Dwala Lam'

& Text by Portia Malatjie
Praise-singing and movement is the celebration of presence. Dwala Lam’ is a praise song that reminds one of the groundedness that is inscribed in their ancestry.

These inscriptions may come by way of being christened by a name that charts out your destiny, creates relief, a warm smile in a quiet moment or even conveys a message to the world.

The names that are often given in African cultures are the hopes and wishes of families that raise the bearer of the name. These names may be passed down through generations, they may be whispered to an expecting mother in her sleep.

The public exhibition of this digital commission on this platform has ended. To inquire about the work, please contact the artist directly: http://www.sethembile-msezane.com/contact
Biographies

Biographies

Sethembile Msezane was born in 1991 in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. She has an MFA from the Michaelis School of Fine Art. Through performance, photography, film, sculpture and drawing, Msezane creates work heavy with spiritual and political symbolism, exploring issues around spirituality, commemoration, dreams, ancestry, and African knowledge systems. Her work also examines the mythmaking used to construct history, calling attention to the absence of the black female body in both the narratives and physical spaces of historical commemoration.
ortia Malatjie (hidden title)
Dr. Portia Malatjie is a Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. She is Adjunct Curator of Africa and African Diaspora at Tate Modern, London and Adjunct Curator at Norval Foundation, Cape Town. She holds a PhD in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths University of London. Her research investigates African conceptions of Blackness through Black Feminism, as well as African sonic and spiritual praxes. Malatjie has lectured at Goldsmiths University of London, Rhodes University and Stellenbosch University.
  • Bard Logo
  • Center for Human Rights and the Arts
    Barringer House, Bard College
    30 Campus Road
    Annandale-On-Hudson, NY 12504
  • Instgram Icon and link  Bluesky Icon and Link  Facebook Icon and Link  Vimeo Icon and Link

    +1 (845) 758-7650
    [email protected]