About

The title, meaning ‘Navel’ in isiZulu, makes reference to the ceremony of Inkaba yami, where a newborn’s umbilical cord is placed in the centre of a family’s kraal. Led by the elders, this ritual is a reminder for the child to never forget their origin and identity.
Presented as a series of painted hand-carved wooden panels, Sthenjwa Luthuli powerfully binds spiritual and physical worlds by inscribing the surface with the value of a tangible ritual.
Through his language of pattern-making, Luthuli depicts what he refers to as the ‘unknown space’; a space that represents a threshold or infinite …