The story behind the storyteller: Zikhona Valela

Zikhona Valela is a historian and a writer. Her writing has been published on platforms like New Frame, Johannesburg Review of Books and Mail and Guardian. Valela holds an MA in History on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, which she obtained from Rhodes University in 2017. Valela is a featured artist in the MultiChoice Origins docuseries on Showmax, with her documentary, Zikhona Valela – In Search Of The Forgotten Heroes, now streaming.

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Her journey to becoming a historian

While doing her MA, Zikhona was reading Dr Mamphela Ramphele’s essay “Political widowhood in South Africa”. In the essay, she read about someone she had never heard of before who also had an impact on the independence of South Africa today.

Nohle Mohapi was married to Mapetla Mohapi, who was the first leader of the Black Consciousness Movement to be killed in detention, which happened on 5 August 1976.

About her book

After gathering more information about the Mohapis, Zikhona was determined to write a book about the life and death of Mapetla Mohapi so that she could shine a light on an activist who was erased from our history.

“I was struck by how I had never heard about Nohle Mohapi, especially when the BCM was active in my hometown. Mapetla and Steve Biko were close friends and colleagues, yet when you come across the BCM, Mapetla is likely to only get a paragraph allocated to his contributions and legacy.”

Valela says she has always loved history, especially as she has grown up in a country that has survived recent and tragic events like apartheid, and the fact that she’s been a product of that system, which continues to shape her existence structurally.

Zikhona’s role model

If you guessed that Valela’s favourite historical figure is Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, you’d be right, of course.

“She was the most visible figure of the liberation movement far more than her husband in the aftermath of his incarceration on Robben Island. Her visibility is also a window into women who do not garner the same attention.”

She believes that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela symbolises the fact that South Africa is not truly free and no one wants to deal with that reality. “It also bothers me how easily discarded she was, and how her decline is not investigated seriously or even her connections with people across political organisations and across race.”

Zikhona’s future plans and collaboration aspirations

Valela’s goal is to tell history in creative ways, so she believes that she could collaborate with all the other Origins artists to tell stories about history in their own way. Recognising this allows these important stories to be accessible in ways that audiences can connect with and in a way that is real for them.

While storytellers are vessels, audiences are the vehicle and they keep the conversation going and the work alive long after it has entered the world.

Zikhona’s connection to her work

“Someone needs to sing, film, dance, and create the times because what you will see in the book is I didn’t simply talk about what Mapetla did and how he died, I talked about how he lived. In order to connect with this human being, it was imperative that I listen to his music. He loved jazz and soul music. He loved photography and film. And I see the people who engage with my work in that light.”