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HERE, THERE & FORWARD

Shembe is the way

Sthembiso Sibisi

1976 – 2006

Artwork Details

Artist          Sthembiso Sibisi 
Title            Shembe is the way
Year            1995
Medium      Etching, edition 25/50 (30 x 49 cm)

About the Artist

Sithembiso, also recorded as Sthembiso, Sibisi (1976–2006) was a South African artist associated with KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg. A self-taught artist and highly skilled draughtsman, he studied mechanical engineering before developing his printmaking practice at the Caversham Centre for Artists and Writers in Howick, where he worked with master printer Malcolm Christian. His art drew strongly on his experience of an ancestral calling and initiation as a diviner. Sibisi passed away in Johannesburg in February 2006.

About this Artwork

This artwork depicts members of the Shembe Church, one of South Africa's most significant African Independent Churches. The figures are shown in procession across an open landscape, carrying staffs and dressed in ceremonial attire associated with worship. Rather than presenting a literal documentary scene, Sibisi transformed the gathering into a symbolic image of faith, devotion and communal identity.

Religion occupies a central role in the work. The Shembe faith itself represents a unique synthesis of Christianity and Zulu cultural traditions, and Sibisi's depiction acknowledges the importance of religious practice as both a spiritual and cultural force. As an artist whose own worldview was shaped by ancestral belief and divination, Sibisi approached spirituality not as an external observer but as a participant. As the title suggests, Shembe Is the Way can be understood as an exploration of the ways in which faith provides guidance as a lived experience embedded within everyday life.