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Photo credit MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP via Getty Images

Katrina Esau, one of the last remaining speakers of a Khoisan language that was thought extinct nearly 40 years ago, teaching her native tongue to a group of school children in Upington, South Africa.

South African Children's Book '!Qhoi nla Tjhoi' Hopes to Revive a Dying Ancient Language

Famed 88-year-old South African Khoi-San, N/uu storyteller and writer Katrina Esau has launched Tortoise and Ostrich, the first book published in one of the world's oldest languages.

Katrina Esau recently published an old folktale in her native N/uu language of the Khoi-San people, regarded as Africa's first people and whose language spans over thousands of years. Tortoise and Ostrich or !Qhoi nla Tjhoi is the first story written in the almost extinct N/uu language. The book is a history-defining literary debut that evidences Africa's culture of oral storytelling, and encapsulates why the language and the people need to be protected. The book follows Esau's South Africa 2020 National Honorary Award, titled the Order of the Baobab in Silver, for her excellent contribution to the preservation of a language.


Undimmed by her amazing age, Esau spoke about her book in N/uu at the recent launch of Tortoise and Ostrich, hosted by the National Library of South Africa. The children's story is about Ostrich and Tortoise who happen to come across a clay pot and decide to race for it. Tortoise ultimately wins. The story carries with it many wonderous meanings and meanders into friendship, strength, outwitting competition and how the tortoise got its shell — much like many other folktales that were used to teach children about animals, nature and people. According to IOL, Esau wrote the book with the help of her granddaughter Claudia Snyman, and said shewants the book to create an awareness of the N/uu langauge and help take it forward. Snyman translated the book into Afrikaans and English.

Khoi-San languages have been described some of the "critically endangered" languages around the world. Furthermore, the Khoi-San were marked as illiterate by the Dutch colonisers. Esau's book breaks this myth as N/uu is written in its own style and format, characterised by numerous distinct clicks which influenced Nguni languages such as Xhosa and Zulu. The Khoi-San were forced to take on the Afrikaans language and assimilate into the Coloured culture, marking Esau one of only two surviving speakers of the language, according to 702. The beloved grandmother struggles tirelessly for the survival of the language and reportedly hosts weekly classes for 30 to 40 children in Upington, Northern Cape.

Tortoise and Ostrich will, hopefully, chart a path to remembering South Africa's and Africa's authentic identity. Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, aged 83 and with over twenty books under his belt, wrote his latest bookThe Perfect Nine in his native Gikuyu. The continent and our dying native languages could definitely benefit from more books being written in vernacular.

Read: The NOMMO Awards Long List Spotlights The Best Of African Speculative Fiction

In 2020, Esau was honoured as a South African Living Human Legend for her ''high degree of knowledge and skills to perform or recreate specific elements of the intangible cultural heritage''. Ostritch and Tortoise will also be translated into SeTswana, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa and the Nama language spoken mostly in Namibia. The Ostrich and the Tortoise is published by New Africa Books and proceeds will go to Esau's ongoing efforts to preserve the language. The book can be purchased online or in person at the Melville-based bookstore Book Circle Capital.

Photo by Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images via Getty Images

5 Designers to Watch at South African Fashion Week SS23

Here are five designers to watch at South African Fashion Week SS23.

From April 20 to 23, South African Fashion Week will hit Johannesburg for its spring summer 2023 showcase. More than fulfilling the need of a fashion show, SAFW has accelerated the growth of South Africa’s fashion scene, by creating avenues to discover local talents, promoting local craftsmanship, boosting the retail economy, and triggering conversations like sustainability. SAFW is also responsible for launching the labels of prominent homegrown designers like Rich Mnisi, Thebe Magugu, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Reggi Xaba, and Sindiso Khumalo.

As one of Africa’s leading fashion event, SAFW now enters its 26th year. And over three days, it will host 11 shows and showcase 39 collections at Mall of Africa, its official venue partner. The SS23 show will see it join forces with contingents from Mozambique (Chibai, Mabenna, and Cuccla). It’s a first time collaboration, syncing Mozambique Fashion Week with South Africa’s, which will close out the show.

Going strong is SAFW’s New Talent Search, a local-run competition to discover fresh and under-the-radar talents. Returning as a headline sponsor of this segment is fashion retailer Mr Price. From Mmathoo Silika to Sifiso Kunene to Kuhle Phumzile Zondo, this year’s entrants will open proceedings at SAFW and may the best talent win. On the other hand, there are other designers we have on our radar. Not only have they been impressive in the past, we just love the mystery of not knowing what to expect.

Here are five designers to watch at South African Fashion Week SS23.

Thando Ntuli (Munkus)

After winning SAFW’s talent search competition in 2022, Thando Ntuli became a national buzz. Her womenswear brand, Munkus, was created in 2019 and has been a time capsule of '80s and '90s Soweto style influences. From its playful, whimsical silhouettes to bold and daring prints, the brand is bridging wardrobes across generations of women.

Further, a sustainability narrative has governed Ntuli’s approach to making garments. Involving technical details that imbue sentimentality, the brand prides itself on quality over quantity. In doing so, the garment’s shelf life can be extended enough to be passed down. Munkus has also adopted layering cues, allowing customers to style with other pieces. At SAFW SS23, the designer is slated to appear on day one, debuting the brands’s Isikhathi/Time SS23 collection.

Fikile Sokhulu

A 2021 WWD profile had spotlighted Fikile Sokhulu as a designer to watch. Indeed, the Durban-based designer finished as a finalist at the 2018 SAFW talent search contest. Launched in 2018, Sokhulu’s eponymous brand was among the selected few for the Fashion Bridges project in 2021. A collaboration between South Africa and Italy, the cultural exchange initiative saw Sokhulu unveil a new collection during Milan Fashion Week.

The brand’s romantic aesthetic (ruffles, frills, pleats, ruching) and feminine tailoring tap into soft sensibilities. When the brand started out, it had heavily featured white, which can still be found in recent collections.

Sipho Mbuto

Durban-based Sipho Mbuto created his self-named, androgynous brand in 2018. A finalist at the 2021 SAFW New Talent Search, Mbutho also participated in the Fashion Bridges project. And this is only a few of the recognitions he has. The brand’s aesthetic tows the line between understated and dramatic, mix matching and clean monochromatic lines.

In Mbuto’s world, he has been sustaining a dialogue around the gender question of clothes, prioritizing self-expression, functionality, movement, and durability. At SAFW 2021, he showcased a collection made out of upcycled denim, second hand jeans sourced from street markets and then deconstructed. At the core of the brand are zero-waste measures informing its production method.

Ntando Ngwenya (Ntando XV)

Photo by Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images via Getty Images

Ntando Ngwenya isn’t a new name in South African fashion. A self-taught designer, he showcased his debut capsule collection in 2015 at the Johannesburg Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. In 2017, he became the winner of David Tlale’s The Intern, a South African reality show with contestants competing to be Tlale’s next assistant designer.

In the years that have followed, Ngwenye has found a niche in menswear with Ntando XV, created in 2015. The experimental label has been inclusive nonetheless, combining wardrobe essentials with postmodern techniques. A visual signature is the contrasting white piping that wreathe around garments. In the SS23 SAFW designer lineup, Ngwenya showcases on the last day, and we look forward to it.

Gugu Peteni (Gugu by Gugu)

A finalist in the 2020 and 2022 SAFW’s Scouting Menswear competition, Gugu Peteni established Gugu by Gugu in 2019 as a streetwear label. Her experience designing for Mohair South Africa for three years helped the designer to navigate Gugu by Gugu in the streetwear market. It also explains her love for mohair, and how the material has crept into her own label.
From colorful knits, denim, velvet dungarees, mohair coats, jumpers to bomber jackets, embossed logos and hand-painted essentials, Peteni has created a wide range of streetwear pieces. For SAFW’s AW22 showcase, she collaborated with South African artist Moagi Letseki to render paintwork on some offerings. It was also a collection that used sustainable techniques and materials used in Peteni’s home. Gugu by Gugu will showcase on April 22, the last day of SAFW.



Film
Photo courtesy of Prime Video.

The 10 Best Horror Movies to Stream in South Africa

It doesn’t take much to make a good horror film – often the most thrilling of scares come from the simplest of ideas. Here are our picks for 10 of the best horror movies to stream in South Africa.

As far as African cinema is concerned, no one does horror quite like the South Africans. OkayAfrica crawled through the major streaming platforms to bring you a list of some of the finest horror titles, plus where to watch them.

From survivalist screamers to ecological horrors, these titles are guaranteed to scare your socks off.

'African Folktales Reimagined' (2023)

Netflix partners with UNESCO to present a potentially exciting initiative, a lore anthology series from six different African countries (Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda), each one reinventing a familiar folktale through the filmmaker’s unique lens. Covering a range of genres from romance to horror, the project is Netflix’s attempt to support the next generation of storytellers, arming them with resources including mentorship and a healthy budget of $90,000 following a competitive process. Dive in and get your scare on.

Where to stream: Netflix

'Beast' (2022)

Idris Elba versus a rampaging CGI lion in a duel to the death – what’s not to love? Baltasar Kormákur's high-concept thriller is a classic man vs. nature survival fable that delivers exactly what it promises, nothing more or less. Shot in the provinces of Limpopo, Northern Cape and the city of Cape Town, Beast also features South African star Sharlto Copley in a supporting role. Elba plays Nate Samuels, a widowed surgeon who meets his worst nightmare — a rogue man-killing lion — when he visits a game reserve with his family.

Where to stream: Prime Video

'The Domestic' (2022)

Bradley Katzen’s single-location chiller stars Thuli Thabethe and Tumisho Masha as an upper-class couple who hire the daughter of their recently deceased housekeeper as their new help. Things soon take a macabre turn when the new help (played by Amanda Du-Pont) seemingly makes it her personal mission to destroy them from within. The Domestic is a suburban horror caper that explores class differences as well as the continuum that links the living with the ancestral plane.

Where to stream: Prime Video

'Fried Barry' (2020)

Barry (Gary Green) is a loser; a heroin addict who has stretched his long-suffering family to their breaking point. Following yet another bender, Barry is abducted by an alien, and he surrenders his body to the visitor who then goes on a joyride through Cape Town, discovering the messy and wonderful world of humankind. Ryan Kruger’s madcap adventure, which has amassed somewhat of a cult following, employs drugs, sex, and violence to comment on human follies and dissatisfactions.

Where to stream: Shudder, Showmax

'Gaia' (2021)

A trippy ecological cautionary tale, Gaia broke through at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in 2021. Directed by Jaco Bouwer, Gaia tracks an injured forest ranger, Gabi (Monique Rockman) who, on a routine mission, is rescued by two off-the-grid survivalists. What starts out as a timely rescue soon grows into a hellish nightmare for Marie as she observes a cultish devotion to the forest among her hosts. Meanwhile, the cabin is also being attacked by a strange presence. Cue the screams.

Where to stream: Showmax, Hulu

'Glasshouse' (2021)

Kelsey Egan’s dystopian debut was a big winner at the South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTAs) following its premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2021. As a dementia-like toxin that has the effect of wiping people's memories spreads, a family of five isolates itself from this devastating pandemic in a dreamy greenhouse. Their ritualistic idyll is endangered when one of the daughters invites a wounded stranger into this sanctuary. Glasshouse recalls Sophia Coppola’s The Beguiled, only with more chills.

Where to stream: Showmax

'His House' (2020)

Written and directed by Remi Weekes, this elegant and eloquent debut which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival stars British actors of Nigerian descent, Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu as a refugee couple from South Sudan, struggling to adjust to their new life in an English town that appears to have evil lurking beneath the surface. His House is a terrifying look at the refugee experience, situating the indignities and the abuse within the traditional structure of a haunted house horror.

Where to watch: Netflix

'Nanny' (2022)

Sierra Leonean American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu made her feature debut with Nanny, a visually arresting horror fable about an undocumented Senegalese woman (a convincing Anna Diop), working as a domestic help to a wealthy couple in New York City. Nanny emerged the big winner at Sundance, winning the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The film is a visual delight, with Jusu’s singular vision emerging through the crisp photography and engagement with West African folklore.

Where to stream: Prime Video

'Prey' (2007)

Another (wo)man versus wildlife adventure, Prey directed by the veteran maestro Darrell Roodt (Yesterday, Sarafina!) stars Bridget Moynahan as an American woman trapped by a pack of hungry lions inside a car alongside her two stepchildren, while holidaying at a South African game reserve. The film was inspired by the true story of the Tsavo Man-Eaters during the colonial era, and was filmed on location in Gauteng and Limpopo.

Where to watch: YouTube

'Trees of Peace' (2021)

Trees of Peace contends with a different kind of horror, a not-so-distant example of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Based on true events, writer-director Alanna Brown makes a fictional account of three Rwandan women and an American who hideout in a tiny underground crawlspace during the 1994 genocide that pitted Hutu and Tutsi sects against one another, leading to the massacre of over 1 million people. Brown’s filmmaking is quite heavy handed but look beyond her reliance on closeups and cliches, and you might find something inspiring about Rwanda’s reconciliation efforts led by women.

Where to watch: Netflix

News Brief
ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP via Getty Images

Uganda's President Will "Go To War" Over New Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill

President Museveni is defending the world's harshest anti-human rights bill, threatening death for being gay.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has declared that he will go to war to protect the country's anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed this week. "The NRM (National Resistance Movement) has never had two languages," he said in a statement released by his office on Wednesday, "What we tell you in the day is what we shall say to you at night. The signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is finished; nobody will move us, and we should be ready for a war. Remember, war is not for the soft." Museveni made an onslaught of chaotic comments when he met with lawmakers from his ruling party this week, as he continues to defend signing one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bills to date.

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The Best South African Songs Right Now

Featuring new South African music from Inkabi Zezwe, Nomfundo Moh, Tyla, K.O, A-Reece and more.

Here are the South African songs and music videos that caught our attention this month.

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