Artist and academic Khanya Mthethwa excavating African knowledge systems to benefit the modern world

Yaa Protocol exhibition which opened at Goethe Institute on Saturday, co-created by Mthethwaand Mpho Makutu,explores intersection of African indigenous knowledge systems and new technology.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

For the first time that I came to know about Dr Khanya Mthethwa’s broad art practices that is situated within the indigenous African knowledge system, was in 2025 when I interviewed her ahead of the opening of her solo exhibition at FADA Gallery at University of Johannesburg, where she is a lecturer.

I got to know that her research interest are within the African knowledge systems, including researching the he role that beads have had in African societies beyond the aesthetic role. She has done extensive research in that area, speaking to African elders who understand the cultural aspect of the role of beads in African communities, going centuries back.

The exhibition was going to exhibit fashion objects, such as jewellery and fabric, long practised by African communities. However just as I was looking forward to attending the exhibition, the opening was postponed, and a new date was decided on. Unfortunately, I had other commitments, and therefore could not make it.

However, on Saturday, October 10, 2026, I had an opportunity to attend an event at the Goethe Institute in Parkwood, Johannesburg, where Mthethwa had an exhibition, which also followed an enlightening panel conversation at the intersection of African indigenous knowledge systems and technology, emanating from the exhibition Mthethwa co-created with Mpho Makutu, a technology innovator.

Yaa Protocol exhibition and Workshop | The Yaa Protocol is a research and creative project by Dr Khanya Mthethwa and Mpho Makutu that explores how Indigenous African knowledge systems can inform the ways we imagine and design future technologies, through a showcase and workshop.©

The Yaa Protocol is a collaborative research and creative project by Dr Khanya Mthethwa and Mpho Makutu that explores how Indigenous African knowledge systems can inform the ways we imagine and design future technologies.
 
 Developed through research in Ghana, the project draws from Akan systems of governance, matrilineal knowledge, and the legacy of Yaa Asantewaa, whose leadership during the War of the Golden Stool provides an important point of departure. Central to the research is the relationship between the Queen Mother, the King, and the Golden Stool, where authority is understood not simply through individual power, but through interconnected systems of custodianship, ancestry, spirituality, and collective responsibility.
 
 Bringing together Indigenous Knowledge Systems, jewellery and adornment, robotics, CAD, and responsive technologies, The Yaa Protocol translates these principles into a speculative technological object. Rather than asking how African knowledge might be inserted into existing technologies, the project asks a different question: What might technology become if Indigenous knowledge were part of its foundation?