Art tours frame Soweto's vibrant culture and heritage in canvas, mosaic and mural

Daily Maverick

2 days ago

Visiting the township's galleries, studios and cultural hubs gives tourists a sneak peek into its vibrancy and talent as tour guides recount the area's storied history and encourage debate.
We meet on a sunny morning at Lebo's Backpackers in Orlando West. The place is buzzing: music is playing and tourists are heading off to see the sights of Soweto on bicycles and tuk-tuks. Maria Malepa, the owner-manager of Lebo's, has just managed to herd 15 visiting Australian journalists onto a bus and greets us with coffee and vetkoek.
The new Soweto Art Route, she explains, is a creative collaboration between Lebo's Backpackers and Toura Travel Therapy, a local tour company owned by Thabo Modise, also known as Thabo the Tourist. He's unmistakable, a head and shoulders above the rest of us, and has the funkiest hairstyle. Thabo is an 'art concierge' and takes art tours across Jozi city and now Soweto. The tours are part of the work by the Jozi My Jozi Soweto chapter to diversify Soweto's tourism offerings. 'This one's for the culturally curious,' says Thabo.
We're also joined by Thami Ndimande from Soweto Experiences, a born and bred Sowetan and brilliant raconteur and guide. One of the great delights of the Soweto Art Route is the storytelling that happens along with the tour. In between visiting artists and their studios, the tour takes us past murals, parks and places of cultural significance, and Thabo and Thami regale us with tales of Soweto's rich artistic heritage and the people who made it.
Up and over the hump
First stop is Nkungu Street in Orlando West, which is also known as Mzimhlope, famous for its so-called elephant houses – who knew? – whose roofs are concrete humps. It's fabulously outlandish.
One elephant house is decorated in the colours of Pirates, the legendary soccer team. Another has a memorial to anti-apartheid activist Lilian Ngoyi with a quirky sewing machine sculpture outside.
We visit the sun-filled studio of Lerato Motau, a small and purposeful space whose walls are decorated with deliciously colourful artworks. Motau does textile works using fabric, embroidery and mixed media and is famed for her series Ten Thousand Women. Despite having dyslexia, Motau went on to become an accomplished artist who has exhibited all around the world.
She shares her story with us, explains how her daughter also overcame dyslexia to become a fashion designer, and that her work raises awareness about dyslexia. Her works are rich and feminine.
The storytelling continues as we take a drive to Mofolo. We pass a famous mural of the 1976 Soweto Uprising – and hear the poignant story of the dogs depicted in it – and swing by the funky Matchbox Gallery, a contemporary art space at the top of Vilikazi Street, which shows the work of local street artists. We drive past the house of the late Gibson Kente, a playwright, composer, producer and director known as the father of Black Theatre. We listen to anecdotes and stories of the writers, poets, musicians and artists of Soweto.
Cultural hub
The Mofolo Arts Centre feels so peaceful, with its 1950s buildings surrounded by lawns and shaded by trees. It's across the road from Mofolo Park, which is a popular concert venue and has some fabulous murals.
The centre was a cultural and artistic hub in the 1970s and 1980s. Famous artists such as Jabulani Sam Nhlengethwa, Durant Sihlali and Ezrom Legae studied here, before the place was abandoned and fell into disrepair in the 1990s.
The Mofolo Art Centre is now being revived and has studios, workshops and a gallery space. Stepping into artist Bra Kenny Nkosi's studio here is like stepping onto another planet. He uses plastic and all sorts of waste to create incredibly intricate sculptures – powerful art that depicts the horror of war, the madness of life and the beauty of music.
Bra Kenny looks like a jazz musician, and his studio is full of mannikins, paintings, old boots and dead appliances. 'Everything is a metaphor,' he says.
He also works with fabric paintings that portray people's daily lives in Soweto. Bra Kenny tells us that it's been a full circle for him coming back here because he studied and taught at the Mofolo Art Centre in the 1980s. We meet one of his former students, Zanele Mashumi, who now promotes Nkosi's work and those of other contemporary African artists through Mashumi Art Projects. 'There is no script anymore,' she says, 'Artists are creating what they like.' We bump into jazz musician Morake Koali and pop into the mosaic studio of John Mbulaheni, who also offers children's art classes, a sanctuary for young creatives.
Heritage and memory
Heads full of stories and images, we hop back on the bus and head to the Eyethu Shopping Centre. It's great to drive around Soweto and see daily life here. The parks and trees, the school kids, the traffic, the suburbs and shops. Should we still call Soweto a township? That's one of the questions we debate. Isn't it a city? Is the word 'township' inherently demeaning?
Big and bold murals by contemporary artist Senzart911 fill the outside walls of the Eyethu Heritage Hall. Once the iconic Eyethu Theatre, the first black-owned cinema in Soweto, the building has been restored and transformed into a funky contemporary venue. The building's interiors are just incredible. The walls are lined with old posters and cinema memorabilia: movie tickets, newspaper cuttings, record covers, the famous actors and actresses of Soweto, the musicians, the movies of the 1960s and 1970s. It's one big visual history lesson.
We are shown around by Zanele Tshabalala, who takes us on a journey of the golden age of this Soweto venue, how it came to be a cultural hub. It was built in 1969 by her grandfather, Ephraim Batana Tshabalala, the great entrepreneur of Soweto, who quit his job in 1946 with £20 in savings and began a meat business, then went on to build a retail empire that included garages, bottle stores, fish and chips outlets, supermarkets and dry cleaning depots. It was this cinema of which he was most proud. What an amazing story and space.
Journey's end
We return to Lebo's Backpackers for lunch at its outdoor restaurant, a thatched boma with beach vibes (the bar, cocktails, murals) that serves daily braais and potjiekos. It's opposite a green field with painted walls, near a path that local pedestrians use. There are tourists and guides popping in and out; a herd of goats causes a disruption.
Lebo's is a convivial space and it's advisable to spend the night here after the tour. The experience calls for a beer or a glass of wine and a gentle afternoon and evening contemplating the rich art and culture of Soweto. Time to process and kick back, letting life imitate art. DM
Photo walks
It's not part of the Soweto Art Tour, but we took a visit to the Mandebele Photo Gallery in Braamfischerville. Documentary photographer Gopolang Ledwaba manages this community photo gallery and resource space in Soweto. It has artworks, photographs and books, and is a space for conversations, discussions and workshops. It's also the starting and finishing point for Ledwaba's photo walks around the area and to the nearby cemetery. Ledwaba also offers photography lessons to locals and kids. 'We are dedicated to elevating consciousness through the arts and photography,' he says.