Arts

Imiphindo kwaXhosa

by Siviwe James

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Latest episodes

Ukusonga

May 20, 2025 · 1 min

Xa sithetha ngemigobo/imigoqo, sithetha ngantoni? Sigoba ntoni? Kuvele ntoni? What is bent when we speak of imigoqo? What surfaces when we turn, twist, or fold? This episode dwells in the curves and contours of isiXhosa life—its gestures…
Bonus: Incoko nomboniso kuGatyana

December 6, 2023 · 2 min

On 25 August 2023, the UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED: Imiphindo kwaXhosa production team returned kuGatyana to host a listening session with the podcast’s co-authors and their community. What began as a simple gesture of return became a…
Episode 10: Inkcubeko Yakwantu

October 9, 2023 · 9 min

In this episode, we spend time with uAzola Krweqe, a curator and visual practitioner whose work spans Cape Town and her paternal home in Nkanga, Willowvale. Through her photographic inquiries, Azola explores how her subjects choose to be…
Episode 9: UN/Folding at the Willowvale Arts Center (W.A.C)

October 9, 2023 · 3 min

The Willowvale Arts Center is a creative hub located onthe outskirts of the remote town of Willowvale. Established in 2008 by the Department of Sports, Arts and culture, the uniquely designed building is the host site for creatives…
Episode 8: Ukugotywa kweelwimi

September 29, 2023 · 14 min

What do the slippages of fashion look like? What happens to the voids that form between urban and rural, past and present, individual and communal? In this episode, we explore the folds and fissures in fashion’s fabric — where languages…

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Episode 7: Umbhinqo

September 24, 2023 · 5 min

Umbhinqo: Kubhinqa abatheni xa kutheni? Narrated by uMama Makholi, a revered maker at the Willowvale Arts Center, this episode brings us into the intricate folds of Xhosa dress practices—specifically umbhinqo and isishuba. With clarity…
Episode 6: Iintsimbi iyathetha

September 17, 2023 · 8 min

Yonke into iyathetha. Netsimbi le iyathetha. This episode honours beadwork not simply as adornment, but as archive—a living, breathing language held in colour, thread, and form. We walk alongside uMama Nokhaya Jilingisa, a revered…
Episode 5: Imiphindo ephilisayo (interlude)

September 17, 2023 · 2 min

What can creative practice offer a displaced spirit? How might making—through word, thread, voice, or movement—become a ritual of return? This interlude opens a soft space for pause and reflection. Through sonic fragments and field…
Episode 4: Unxibe ntoni? Ithetha ntoni?

September 10, 2023 · 8 min

In this episode, we take up clothing as language—as a material vocabulary that speaks across generations. Guided by community elders and local Makers at the Willowvale Arts Center, we enter a space of listening and learning, where dress…
Songa

September 10, 2023 · 1 min

A bridge. A break. A spiral. This episode unfolds as a reflexive interlude—a moment of return and resonance. SONGA dwells in the sonic and poetic textures of isiXhosa, circling around the language of folds and the folding of language…
Episode 3: Iimibono zemihla

September 9, 2023 · 3 min

This episode marks a shift—from gathering and observing, to sensing and becoming. We begin to see how the folds of Xhosa dress and ritual are not merely symbolic, but pedagogical: they teach, they mark, they hold. Through a return to…
Episode 2: Imnyama ibenomgca omhlophe

September 8, 2023 · 11 min

“Imnyama ibenomgca omhlophe.” In this textured episode, we are guided by uTat’ Mangaliso Jafta—community elder, social entrepreneur, and former MK operative—who walks with us through the streets of Willowvale, kuGatyana. As co-host and…

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About the show

UN/FOLDING_RE/FOLDING_FOLDED: Imiphindo kwaXhosa is a practice-led podcast project by Siviwe James that unfolds as a sonic archive and a site of return. Through a series of intimate audio-visual encounters, the podcast explores the fold as both method and metaphor in African fashion—inviting listeners into the sensory, spiritual, and social lives of garments, rituals, and everyday cultural gestures. The project is supported by the African Fashion Research Institute (AFRI) and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International.