Traveling solo across Africa can be daunting for anyone, but Siphephile Sibanyoni has embraced the challenge, discovering an authentic way to tell stories through her lens, capturing the true essence of the continent.
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00:00This woman wants to decolonize African history and all with just one click
00:06Most
00:08Indigenous African tribes have always been interpreted by the Western mindset for instance
00:16They'll definitely speak about naked people in Africa
00:20Spepele Sibanyoni is an award-winning freelance photographer based in Mbabani, Eswatini
00:25Let's find out why her passion for photography led her to travel the African continent
00:30Look how beautiful this is, but the story behind this it's a story of hope
00:36It's somebody who's been waiting for like 16 hours
00:40He left the village trying to make a living in order to remove this hairstyle
00:46because this hairstyle is actually a
00:49Traditional hairstyle, you cannot just cut it. In order for him to be man enough to cut off this hairstyle
00:55He needs to prove that he's got enough cattle
00:57But how he's gonna have cattle and we're suffering from all this global warming, climate change, modernization, digitalization and all affluences
01:08With my interpretations, to me it's heritage, it's treasure
01:14You hunt for treasure. You can't just find it anywhere
01:17So I feel like I'm I keep so much treasure in me with all that I've achieved and acquired
01:23Through all the travels and experiences and expeditions because they are solo, it happens when I'm alone
01:29Traveling across the African continent to get unseen sights and told stories is a bold move for a woman on her own
01:37Spepele insists that she has only just started
01:40What challenges has she faced on some of her trips?
01:43And why is it necessary to immerse into the unknown to make it visible to the global audience?
01:49Yes, there will be barrier, language barrier, communication barrier because it's a foreign language and
01:57The resources are usually
01:59not properly, you know
02:02Available because I'm self-funded in everything that I do. I've been funding myself for the longest time and
02:09It's been a personal journey
02:10I never wanted to include anybody else into it because I wanted to find out where can I go further with this?
02:18That's the will and the zeal and the perseverance of doing it
02:22I was like if I did it the first time I can always do it
02:26I
02:36Want to be a part of them, I want to be part of the community
02:40I don't do tour buses or tour guides or sleeping in exclusive or explicit
02:46Exclusive hotels and stuff. I am a part of the people because I spent like two months in the Maniata never been there
02:54Language barrier was obviously there but I had I had an opportunity to get somebody who was fluent in interpreting to me
03:01So I learned all the cultures
03:03I learned all the practices all the oral traditions and everything but yet some of them were hidden but I
03:11Learned a lot
03:12the good stories and the sad stories were there because I spent so much time and I became
03:16They became warm to me and I became one of them because I couldn't just get there with a camera and shoot shoot shoot
03:22That's assumption. Is this why the Swazi visual storyteller is challenging the African narrative?
03:29What made her seek her own uniquely African approach?
03:34Poverty
03:35hunger
03:36having none exposure to any form of
03:39Western way of living and lifestyle
03:43Yet they made money off them and through them
03:48lovely
03:49Specula Sibanyoni worked as a marketer in the UK and South Africa
03:53While she studied photography and developed her creative eye in photography and as a creative director
03:59How did this help her find her own African style of storytelling?
04:02we've got our own colors that we embrace in summer winter autumn and spring without any limitations, but
04:09when I was in Europe
04:11color meant
04:14Certain celebrations yet. It's dialed mostly it was beautiful when it came to
04:21learning my craft fine art in photography
04:26But expressing myself with the textures that they had I found it so limited
04:30Specula's work has been displayed at galleries sold online and printed into a coffee table book
04:36I love her pieces. I love the black and white. I love that it brings in our African aesthetic
04:42I do some interior work as well. And I see that I'll also be able to fit it into some of the projects
04:48I'm working on
04:50But I think the store she'll sell a number of pieces from the store as well
04:55Specula seems to constantly reinvent her creative focus
04:59Why does she feel the need to expand the media that she uses to express herself?
05:03I feel like interpreting my works in different dimensions
05:08especially on fabric and
05:12Furniture upholstery. It's endless
05:15it's
05:17The sky is the limit basically and I'm looking forward to
05:21to more growth. Specula is constantly chasing the perfect picture
05:26Sometimes this is moments in time that are captured on the fly at other times
05:31She meticulously plans for and designs every element before she even takes a single shot
05:37What makes the perfect short and everything else is
05:42It's all about belief on
05:45The actual person doing the whole photo shoot. That's me as a photographer
05:51having faith and trust and
05:54That helps in creating a concrete and solid relationship
05:57But Specula's goal of reclaiming narratives goes beyond the images on her prints or fabrics
06:03How does she think telling these stories is impacting young Africans?
06:07What I always tell people or even the people I mentor
06:11I always tell them to not actually restrict themselves from creating just keep on creating and
06:18You'll figure it out. Were you actually alive out of doing all creations that actually
06:26That you actually find yourself into never limit yourself
06:31The art of African photography is evolving from portraits
06:34Which would be taken by the local street photographer to brave new photographers like Specula Sabanyoni
06:40Who are prepared to break stereotypes?
06:43Backpack across the continent and let people tell their own stories
06:47To be really and truly seen