UMZILA (The Legacy)
Featured Artist: Thandeka Mfinyongo
Curator: Bathandekile Myeni
Venue: NWU Gallery (North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Building F16G)
Opening date: 12 August 2026
Closing date: 11 September 2026
Umzila (The Legacy) is an exhibition that explores instrument-making as an artistic, pedagogical, and archival practice through the Xhosa musical bow, uhadi.
At its core is the concept of the Ideogrammatic Archive, a way of understanding uhadi as a memory-evoking object that carries Indigenous knowledge, identity, and histories through both sound and material form.
The exhibition presents a series of handcrafted bows alongside a video installation documenting their making. Together, these elements trace the intimate relationship between making, memory, and embodied knowledge. The process foregrounds the hands in relation to uhadi making, their labour, care, and repetition through which knowledge is held, transmitted, and remembered.
In Umzila, crafting becomes a way of remembering. Uhadi becomes more than an instrument; it becomes a living archive that holds and transmits connections between past, present, and future.
About the artist
Born in Nyanga East, Cape Town, Thandeka Mfinyongo is an African musician, scholar, and lecturer in African Music and Ethnomusicology at North-West University. A UCT-trained performer, SOAS graduate, and current PhD candidate, she performs globally and blends African instruments with contemporary sound innovatively.
Featuring: The North-West University's permanent art collection
Curated by: Ashley du Rand, Hannah Finch and Nobuhle Xaba
Venue: NWU Gallery (North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Building F16G)
Opening date: 12 August 2026
Closing date: 11 September 2026
The North-West University Gallery (NWU Gallery), Potchefstroom Campus, is proud to present Metanoia, a curatorial project organised by the students of the North-West University, History of Arts Honours Degree. In an age dominated by technology, AI, and fast-paced modern living, Metanoia asks viewers to take a step back from the noise of everyday life, focusing on the human experience and examining the more intimate moments of life that are becoming harder to make space for. The exhibition will be taking place from 12 August to 11 September 2026, opening its doors at 6 pm on August 12th. Drawing from the North-West University’s Permanent Art Collection, the Metanoia exhibition boasts an immersive curation of the human experience, showcasing over 20 artists and artworks, including paintings, sculptures and mixed-media pieces.
Metanoia invites attendees to connect with one another through the space, which is grouped into three zones within the exhibition: the body, soul and spirit. The zone of the body represents the corporeal aspects of human experience, playing on the tactile, sensory elements of art. The artworks are characterised by their earthy tones, use of mixed media, and heavy textures, emphasising embodied experiences, the body as a vessel, and the materiality of being human. The area of the soul dives into the personality traits and quirks that make each individual unique. This selection of artworks is energetic, playful, full of colour, and sometimes messy, emphasising the rich complexity of the human soul. Finally, the zone of the spirit depicts our connection to the divine, focusing on the intimate, contemplative moments of life when our spirit can rest, curated to evoke a sense of peace, reflection and being present in the moment.