Roll the Credits to the Masiyembo music video and the crew and cast that made it possible…

I wrote a substack about how I experienced this artwork, which you can find HERE

“Masiyembo” ~ let us go back to the source, arrives as a meditation on origin, memory and connection. In the music video, Zolani Mahola is joined by The Feminine Force in a work that flows between music, movement and spoken word, drawing attention to the stories, people, language and land that shape who we are.

The performers : Cal Thompson, Sky Dladla, Genevieve Lee, Ntombe Halam, Chanté Phillips, Farnel Smart, Queezy Babaz, Thandeka Mfinyongo and Cyrin Jade, do not simply accompany Mahola… together, they create the collective body through which the song finds its visual expression.That sense of collectivity extends beyond the performers. Directed and produced by Chelsea Art for See Art Films, with Michael Carter as Director of Photography, the video is the product of a substantial creative collaboration. Adam Hansen served as 1st Assistant Director, with Laska Harford as Production Assistant; the camera department included 1st AC Pholosi Khumalo and 2nd AC Mohammed Ali, while Michael Kopp documented the work behind the scenes. The result is a visual piece in which the camera, bodies and landscape seem to participate in the same conversation, one concerned with where we come from and what we carry with us.There is particular care in the details surrounding the performers, too. Michelle-Lee Collins led make-up, assisted by Marina De Mink and Keanan September, while Asiphe Sonjica handled hair. Megan Art shaped the wardrobe with styling assistants Sikha Mvunelwa and Panashe Ndhlovu, featuring dress collection by Fikile Sokhulu. In post-production, Tom Willows served as both editor and colourist, with M.S. Retief responsible for the voice-over recording. Special thanks are extended to Noreen Art at the end of it all.

These credits matter because “Masiyembo” is ultimately a work about collective inheritance, and the video itself is evidence of what can emerge when many creative voices contribute to a single artistic language.The closing spoken-word passage brings the idea of return into sharper focus, holding together seemingly opposing states: gentleness and strength, brokenness and wholeness, wounds and rising. It is here that the Feminine Force becomes less a cast credit than an idea, but a recognition of the strength that can exist in vulnerability and togetherness. “Masiyembo” is therefore worth encountering not only as a new work by Mahola, but as part of a wider body of work by the artists and creatives who inhabit its world. The video offers a doorway…. the credits offer a map of the people who built it. The rest is worth discovering.