Jackal & Hide was approached to capture the essence of Capital City Housing NPC through a mural and narrated story.
Our first response was, “RAD!” because we love big walls with a lot of reach. Jono has passed his lust for walls onto me… Often we’ll be driving and I’ll exclaim, “Phwoar, check out that wall!” It’s not cheating if it’s a wall.
CCH’s offices are on Peter Kerchoff Street in Pietermaritzburg, and this area is seeing a massive boost through business and community initiatives. That’s why we wanted the mural to be “lank vibrant”, to add colour to the area, and to reflect the collective energy of the space.
We also wanted to tell a story about why home is so important.
Home is more than the house we live in, it is our community, our town, our country. Home is where we belong. In an election year, we thought this story was even more important because South Africa has so much colour, potential, and the best stories…
When Jono and I sat down to do our brain-bashing session one of our first considerations was who to use as models for the mural. We already knew what composition we wanted, but we needed the right people, with the right chemistry. It didn’t take long to realise the perfect people were right on our doorstep. Our friend Thobzinto Radebe is an organic farmer in Sweetwaters and his farm is close to where we live. It’s a place of magic and you can taste his stories through the produce he grows. The bond he has with his son Indalo is not something we needed to direct… The portrait of them captures their love for each other and they have smiles that are even too good for toothpaste adverts.
Painting this mural was tricky because the weather has a long-term vendetta against Jono… Plus there were a few technical glitches that hampered progress on what was already a very tight schedule. We are so lucky to have Lelo and her abundant enthusiasm for painting under any circumstance– rain or shine– because she really knows how to rally.
Our vision was to tell the story of home, and the client also wanted us to add in some references to their business– the acacia tree and aloes. From the beginning, we knew there was only one voice for the narration, and this informed how I wrote the piece. Writing for Cuba Ikaneng is one of life’s great joys because every writer needs someone to write for. I know where to punctuate, where to emphasise, and how to grow a narrative because I hear Cuba in my head as I write.
Cuba is like butter, you can never have enough.
The final cut showcases his voice and hits home in the goosebumps department.
Despite the growth and popularity of street art, many people use “graffiti” and “street art” interchangeably. What’s often missed in these exchanges is that people have been painting on walls since the dawn of time. Everyone wants to leave their mark, to claim space, to say “I was here”. Claiming space is how we make ourselves at home and show that we belong… The art is in capturing feeling, moments, everyday magic, and most importantly in telling stories.
“This is our land, these are our stories.”
You see that acacia tree over there in the distance?
That’s close to where our ancestors lived.
Just right from that tree, there was a path in the long grass that would lead us home. I was just a young boy then. Now that home is gone.
But home never goes away. It stays with us, it tethers who we are, and we carry it with us, like invisible keys in our pockets.
We make ourselves at home, we leave home, we come home. We give directions to our home and we map it through our stories. Home is a house, it’s a town, it’s a country…
Home is a feeling.
Home is where we dream and imagine our futures. For some of us, it’s the promise of leaving an unsettled place of unhappy memories, a reason to escape and leave a part of ourselves behind. But if our old homes were unhappy, new homes hold new promises, new paths, new memories.
“Come inside” the house might say to us, “make your new self at home.”
You will always remember that feeling of coming home, to be welcomed. The aloes that line the pathway to the front door, all of those smells and sounds… objects you’ve collected to display. The neighbours who become friends, the community that you become part of.
Home houses us. It’s where we plant seeds, share moments with loved ones. Home is where we are grounded and rooted like that old acacia tree in the distance.
Now as we hold the keys to our new house, our new home, these keys will unlock more than just the front door. They will unlock a whole country we call home.