Mankebe Seakgoe, a University of Witwatersrand fine art graduate wins the 2026 ANNA Award
In this triumph however, Mankebe is not flying solo as the audience have picked Sudanese artist Yasmee Abdalah as the winner of the Audience Award.
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
This was definitely a tough competition as five female artists had been picked by the judges as front runners for this visual art competition, the richest on the African continent focussing on women visual artists.
However, when everything is said and done, there has to be one winner, and that winner is Mankebe Seakgoe.
Seakgoe was yesterday, August 5, 2026, announced as the winner of the2026 ANNA Award.
“From an exceptional group of five finalists, our esteemed selection committee has selected one artist as the winner of the 2026 ANNA Award. We are proud to announce that this year’s ANNA Award winner is Mankebe Seakgoe,”said the organisers Latitudes Art Fair in a statement.
This moment feels like a significant milestone in my career and its growth, especially because I’ve only been practicing as a full-time artist from the beginning of this year,” says Mankebe.
Who is Mankebe Seakgoe?
Mankebe Seakgoe (b. 1998, Pietersburg, Limpopo, South Africa) is a Johannesburg-based contemporary artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans charcoal drawing, text-based works, sculpture, and painting. A graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, Seakgoe explores the complexities of language, communication, and identity, drawing on Black thought, literature, poetry, and personal memory. Her distinctive text drawings blur the boundary between legibility and abstraction, inviting viewers to engage with emotion and meaning beyond conventional forms of reading.
Through recurring themes of storytelling, linguistic determinism, and self-reflection, her work questions how language shapes perception and understanding. Seakgoe’s practice has been exhibited widely in South.
Audience Award
In this triumph however, Mankebe is not flying solo as the audience have picked Sudanese artist Yasmee Abdalah as the winner of the Audience Award.
Who is Yasmeen?
Yasmeen (b. 1992, Qatar) is a Sudanese artist based in Muscat, Oman.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Painting from the Sudan University College of Fine and Applied Arts (2014). Her practice explores the emotional and spiritual relationships between humanity, nature, and the self, drawing on themes of identity, displacement, resilience, and transformation.
Shaped by her experiences living across Qatar, Sudan, and Oman, Yasmeen creates intuitive, meditative paintings in which figures and forms emerge organically on the canvas. Her work weaves together contrasting elements ”light and shadow, interior and natural landscapes ”to reflect the interconnectedness of memory, place, and human experience.