Isaac Zavale –
JONI YA MILENGE

19.09.20 – 01.10.20
Solo Exhibition at
Kalashnikovv Gallery,
Johannesburg

‘Joni ya milenge’ is a phrase used by Shangaan speaking people from Mozambique describing Johannesburg as the city of hustlers.

This body of work is influenced by my everyday life in Jo’burg as a Mozambican born, South African artist who is constantly observing the lives, stories and situations of the Bantu people in South Africa.

In this body of work, I focus on the accessibility of the Johannesburg C.B.D to formal and informal trading and the opportunities that allow the people of the inner city to survive on a day to day basis.

To me, the city is the platform where people who are not traditionally employed make a living, a city which is still recovering from decades of neglect and is imprinted with hundreds of years of colonial practise. I often gaze at how people from all around Africa get to use the space in diverse ways, to create, to operate and to take ownership of the space. Taxi drivers, sultans’ dealers, beading ladies, recyclers and traders who are dealing on the pavements.

One of my intentions behind this exhibition is to highlight continental issues that are manifesting in front of me every day in Jo’burg/Joni/Johanna... the documentation of the people of this republic, my people, a documentation of resilience and sense of self.

In this story, the bantu people are the protagonists, even though many are still in the same struggles today as they were 25 years ago, a struggle which is not only economic but which is also a highly political struggle for all children of Africa.