How this Eswatini woman decolonizes the view of Africa

DW (English)

Traveling solo across Africa can be daunting for anyone, but Siphephile Sibanyoni has embraced the challenge, discovering an authentic way to tell stories through her lens, capturing the true essence of the continent.

Transcript

00:00This woman wants to decolonize African history and all with just one click

00:06Most

00:08Indigenous African tribes have always been interpreted by the Western mindset for instance

00:16They'll definitely speak about naked people in Africa

00:20Spepele Sibanyoni is an award-winning freelance photographer based in Mbabani, Eswatini

00:25Let's find out why her passion for photography led her to travel the African continent

00:30Look how beautiful this is, but the story behind this it's a story of hope

00:36It's somebody who's been waiting for like 16 hours

00:40He left the village trying to make a living in order to remove this hairstyle

00:46because this hairstyle is actually a

00:49Traditional hairstyle, you cannot just cut it. In order for him to be man enough to cut off this hairstyle

00:55He needs to prove that he's got enough cattle

00:57But how he's gonna have cattle and we're suffering from all this global warming, climate change, modernization, digitalization and all affluences

01:08With my interpretations, to me it's heritage, it's treasure

01:14You hunt for treasure. You can't just find it anywhere

01:17So I feel like I'm I keep so much treasure in me with all that I've achieved and acquired

01:23Through all the travels and experiences and expeditions because they are solo, it happens when I'm alone

01:29Traveling across the African continent to get unseen sights and told stories is a bold move for a woman on her own

01:37Spepele insists that she has only just started

01:40What challenges has she faced on some of her trips?

01:43And why is it necessary to immerse into the unknown to make it visible to the global audience?

01:49Yes, there will be barrier, language barrier, communication barrier because it's a foreign language and

01:57The resources are usually

01:59not properly, you know

02:02Available because I'm self-funded in everything that I do. I've been funding myself for the longest time and

02:09It's been a personal journey

02:10I never wanted to include anybody else into it because I wanted to find out where can I go further with this?

02:18That's the will and the zeal and the perseverance of doing it

02:22I was like if I did it the first time I can always do it

02:26I

02:36Want to be a part of them, I want to be part of the community

02:40I don't do tour buses or tour guides or sleeping in exclusive or explicit

02:46Exclusive hotels and stuff. I am a part of the people because I spent like two months in the Maniata never been there

02:54Language barrier was obviously there but I had I had an opportunity to get somebody who was fluent in interpreting to me

03:01So I learned all the cultures

03:03I learned all the practices all the oral traditions and everything but yet some of them were hidden but I

03:11Learned a lot

03:12the good stories and the sad stories were there because I spent so much time and I became

03:16They became warm to me and I became one of them because I couldn't just get there with a camera and shoot shoot shoot

03:22That's assumption. Is this why the Swazi visual storyteller is challenging the African narrative?

03:29What made her seek her own uniquely African approach?

03:34Poverty

03:35hunger

03:36having none exposure to any form of

03:39Western way of living and lifestyle

03:43Yet they made money off them and through them

03:48lovely

03:49Specula Sibanyoni worked as a marketer in the UK and South Africa

03:53While she studied photography and developed her creative eye in photography and as a creative director

03:59How did this help her find her own African style of storytelling?

04:02we've got our own colors that we embrace in summer winter autumn and spring without any limitations, but

04:09when I was in Europe

04:11color meant

04:14Certain celebrations yet. It's dialed mostly it was beautiful when it came to

04:21learning my craft fine art in photography

04:26But expressing myself with the textures that they had I found it so limited

04:30Specula's work has been displayed at galleries sold online and printed into a coffee table book

04:36I love her pieces. I love the black and white. I love that it brings in our African aesthetic

04:42I do some interior work as well. And I see that I'll also be able to fit it into some of the projects

04:48I'm working on

04:50But I think the store she'll sell a number of pieces from the store as well

04:55Specula seems to constantly reinvent her creative focus

04:59Why does she feel the need to expand the media that she uses to express herself?

05:03I feel like interpreting my works in different dimensions

05:08especially on fabric and

05:12Furniture upholstery. It's endless

05:15it's

05:17The sky is the limit basically and I'm looking forward to

05:21to more growth. Specula is constantly chasing the perfect picture

05:26Sometimes this is moments in time that are captured on the fly at other times

05:31She meticulously plans for and designs every element before she even takes a single shot

05:37What makes the perfect short and everything else is

05:42It's all about belief on

05:45The actual person doing the whole photo shoot. That's me as a photographer

05:51having faith and trust and

05:54That helps in creating a concrete and solid relationship

05:57But Specula's goal of reclaiming narratives goes beyond the images on her prints or fabrics

06:03How does she think telling these stories is impacting young Africans?

06:07What I always tell people or even the people I mentor

06:11I always tell them to not actually restrict themselves from creating just keep on creating and

06:18You'll figure it out. Were you actually alive out of doing all creations that actually

06:26That you actually find yourself into never limit yourself

06:31The art of African photography is evolving from portraits

06:34Which would be taken by the local street photographer to brave new photographers like Specula Sabanyoni

06:40Who are prepared to break stereotypes?

06:43Backpack across the continent and let people tell their own stories

06:47To be really and truly seen

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