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Gugulethu Ndlalani

Belonging - blind choices

Gugulethu is a self-taught visual artist from Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. His
work mainly focuses on the documentation of African stories and how they are narrated
to the world. Feeling that most of the stories of Africans are misinterpreted, he tries to
show a different perspective through his images to allow people to draw new conclusions.

Broken Villages is a collaborative initiative with the primary objective of narrative

storytelling. The project is orchestrated by Gugulethu Ndlalani as Creative Director and
Mpumelelo Buthelezi as Visual Director. The endeavor is structured around three distinctive
thematic segments: the Art of Fashion, the Art of Survival, and the Art of Transportation.
Situated within the historically significant enclave of Soweto, the Salarakas residency
also serves as an opportunity to convey the rich African narrative to a global audience.

@brokenvillages brokenvillages@yahoo.com
Belonging

What is belonging?

Well I define it as a need to differentiate, and or rather separate.

When I was born a choice was made for me to belong to a certain

group, that choice had a positive impact on my life growing up.

I grew up in Soweto and the choice my parents made for me as

a way of belonging was to join this religious group, I could say it
was a choice of protecting me in some way. Growing up in Soweto
was not easy - I grew up in a very poor and drug infested area, so
basically this choice was a means of escape from the harsh reality
of Soweto.

This year my parents were on the verge of separation and that

made me conflicted with this concept of religious belonging,
because when this choice was made both my parents were present
and still together.

I believe as individuals we belong because of choices that we

either make for ourselves or that are made for us by our parents, or
rather our forefathers.

In this body of work I am illustrating how choices have a positive or

negative impact on our lives as individuals as we belong to different
groups and situations. Sometimes people make choices to belong
to certain groups because they want to separate themselves from
certain things.