Creative Siphephile Sibanyoni telling a multi-layered African story through fashion, film and photography

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

I first met her in Maboneng in 2020, towards its tail end, when the country was getting some relief from the Covid-19 outbreak and its devastating effects on the economy, including especially the creative and cultural economies of the world.

At the time photographer and business woman Siphephile Sibanyoni was working on two projects at the same time – putting together a business plan to import popular coffee from East Africa and organising an exhibition to show case her stunning photographs of mainly Masai people from Kenya, dressed regally in their traditional gear as well as other cultural accessories. I was particularly impressed by how the people she made images out of seemed to be comfortable with a stranger from another culture of Southern Africa –Sibanyoni hails from Eswatini, but travels and works between South Africa and that monarchy intruding into their culture.

However The people she took pictures of seemed to be comfortable in their traditional gear and seemed not to mind this photographer intruding into their culture. In fact they seemed to be proud to be captured on Sibanyoni’s lens in order to share their cultural practices with rest of the world.
That is exactly what happened because later in 2021, I heard that Sibanyoni had a successful exhibition at Denzil and Jo’s gallery in Melville’s 27 Boxes. How I wish I should have seen those images of a proud cultural group on the walls of the gallery. But unfortunately I could not go. However I have a pretty good idea of how they must have appeared during that exhibition, simply because I had seen them previously as Sibanyoni showed them to me in 2020 before she secured the opportunity to showcase them at the exhibition.

This article today is about Sibanyoni’s work as a photographer and how she has evolved her craft further by incorporating story telling through a film as well as through fashion and this time not as an importer of East African coffee. This story is about her new venture, a film about fashion that has been nominated for a London film award in the Best Story Telling category. This in a way centres Sibanyoni as a multi-displinary artist – a story teller, filmmaker and fashion designer all complimenting each other to tells multi-layered and complex African story of pride in the African culture expressed by its people in different ways.v

Though Sibanyoni has been recently involved in and survived a car crash on her way to cover the Bush Fire Festival, a popular music festival, which takes place annually in her home country of Eswatini, she is back on her feet promoting her film and apparel.
She contacted CITYLIFE/ARTS this week to share her excitement about her new venture, irrespective of the car crash that left her badly injured but currently healing in Eswatini.

Here is what this production is about and how the film has been shot: HOPE tells of a story that expresses an African concept of goodwill through abstract visuals and narration. At the beginning of the day, models are preparing for a photo-shoot, the studio looks clumsy and untidy. It is a collaboration, between Siphephile Sibanyoni the story teller, (who is telling her stories and changing the African narrative through fine art photography and clothing Apparel amongst other creative avenues),
IN this production Sibanyoni collaborates with Will Brown, a professional photographer and four models. As Sibanyoni narrates on how Africa and Africans have been portrayed we see the models wearing HOPE (a fashion statement that speaks of a story narrated by Sibanyoni of her experiences in Namibia where she met the lead character of this story), expressing how the unison of African culture, African ways and looks have been blended with Western concepts.
The blue, yellow and white textures, print of fabric and loose fitting outfits give off the “Rich Auntie” vibes, simple, comfortable and chic.

They are in front of construction equipment representing hard work and the level of difficulty when one first embarks on a journey that requires courage and only depends on hope.
The story continues to the beginning of it all. HOPE, an award nominated portrait by Sibanyoni is the centre and inspiration behind the clothing Apparel and the seed of this story which the team has embarked on to express through fashion and photography.

Sibanyoni narrates, how she met this young man with an amazing African hairstyle, how he was patiently waiting for his friend who works at a lodge to come and get him so he helps him get a job.
She expresses how he could not remove the hairstyle until he got married and he could not wait for it. We see, hopeful ladies, patiently waiting by the bus stop anticipating the arrival of their friend from the yellow construction machine.

We see a joyful fiancee. The story continues through fields, opening up rustic African features combined with natural terrains, road textures and distant buildings all representing the African and European cocktail.
HOPE unfolds through a series of still portraits in the fields and on the roadside with the climax being at a bus stop by the local grocery store. Photographer Will Brown digs deep into the realm of the collection in a scene exploring the extraordinary craftsmanship that would represent every African child’s dream, to rise, to reach greater heights, it would represent HOPE.
The film ends on a high peak, the model, the environment, the lighting all come together to portray image of HOPE.

Credits
Storyline Siphephile Sibanyoni
Directed by Tawanda Joseph Mutsena and Siphephile Sibanyoni
Photographer – Will Brown second cameraman: Mufasa, captions Assistant photographer – Gcina Mufasa Mntshali, Stylist – Siphephile Sibanyoni, Face art- Notsile Sibandze