The rebel with a course

Mpho Tlale | Friday October 18, 2013 17:05

 

A street art muralist and rapper, Nsibande switches between making art and music.  Both are close to his heart.  That is why he is not able to describe himself using one without the other.'I am an artist and that embraces both my talents which means I cannot pick one over the other.  Both serve different roles but are equally important in my life,' he says.  Currently, he is working on a mural at the Tlokweng Red Cross Society and that is why he has paint residue under his nails.

He says that his art form is graffiti and not street art mural.  He says the interpretation of graffiti is a type of art form that aims to attract social commentary and invade spaces.  'I aim to de-stigmatise street art because for a long time, it has been seen as negative but there is more to it than meets the eye.' He says that some good can actually come out of graffiti if used appropriately.As a child, he once painted a church wall with the words 'F**k Jesus' and received flak because of his open association with graffiti.'Those are the type of people that have made the art fall under a negative category,' he says.

Nsibande is driven by passion for his work.  He says that although it might take Batswana a while to appreciate his form of art, he will keep on pushing until it gets the recognition that it deserves.  As part of the push, he has started an initiative called Arts For Change through which he has painted tuckshops in Old Naledi.

Some of his friends and visiting artists from the Reunion Islands helped him in the project.  He says that initially, the plan was to paint the Old Naledi Clinic but he was turned down by the council on grounds that the form of art he proposed is something that has never been done before. 

Nsibande says Batswana are afraid of change and new things. 'People just don't understand what I am trying to do'.He says that it might take a while to convince people to view his art in the way he hopes.  He says that being turned down did not deter him as he went around and got an instant go-ahead from tuckshop owners who wanted a make-over on their businesses.

Arts For Change has also revamped Tsholofelong Day Care Centre in Old Naledi and gave its walls a facelift. The Arts For Change programme that Nsibande and a friend, Sebastian Modak are working on aims to get the youth involved in art and explore their talent at an early stage.Nsibande's biggest wish is for corporations to use his art and change their form of advertising. 

He says people are tired of seeing the old forms of advertising and want something unorthodox.  This will give them something new to talk about.Besides people who do not understand his art, Nsibande says exploiters also dishearten him.He says many who seek to exploit him are from the corporate world. 

Ironically, the companies they represent can afford to buy his work but are not willing to pop out money. He says they fail to understand that he gets his spray paints in South Africa because they are not available locally. 'Whether I courier the paints or go and buy them in person is still a costly exercise.  People need to understand this,' he says.In addition, he must benefit from his labour and skill because he lives off his art.

He has been asked to switch to paint and brush but he has refused because that is not who and what he is.  He believes he has the potential to make it abroad, he has not thought of relocation.'Why go elsewhere when I can start something here?

Why contribute to others' creative economies when we can start and do something here?'.  Born to a Swati father and a Xhosa mother, Nsibande says that he considers Botswana his home because he was born and bred here.  Although he is still in touch with his roots and visits his Swati and Xhosa relatives, his heart is in Botswana.He has schooled here most of his life except for a year in 1998 when he did his Form One in Johannesburg. 

Nsibande is an Information Technology graduate from Botho College when it was still known as NIIT.

He also holds an associate degree in Creative Media from Limkokwing University.  He wishes that he became a fulltime artist much earlier but this was not possible because his grandmother pushed him to pursue his education so that he could have something to fall back on. 

He is the only artist in his family and an only child.He says that while doing his art he has always been a lyricist.  He calls himself a mobile hip-hop house because he classifies himself as a graffiti king, an MC and a lyricist.