Mthwalo Wami Uyangisinda (My burden, you are heavy)
Metal with woven plastic & organza
215 cm x 90 cm x 75 cm
Artist’s Statement
This sculptural work is a meditation on inherited family pressure, the quiet weight of provision, and the emotional cost of being relied upon. At its centre is a complex, skeletal noose form — wrapped in uKhonze Khaya (a woven plastic material historically used in domestic spaces to carry, store, and protect) and scattered with delicate white organza flowers — a barely-there gesture that whispers of what is too often unseen.
Known by many names — uKhonze Khaya, Ghana Must Go, Mas’goduke, Umhlaba Ungehlule, IsKwama sikaMama, or simply “China bags” — this humble material carries layered meaning across African contexts. While often associated with migration and mobility, here it becomes a textile of emotional labour: holding the shape of something that tightens, binding love with duty.
The noose is not a literal reference to death, but a metaphor for the grip of inherited responsibility, where care is entwined with expectation, and survival is often negotiated under pressure. The work draws from the artist’s lived experience and the broader context of “black tax,” where emotional and financial support for extended family becomes a generational obligation.
Thirty organza flowers — some blooming, others tightly furled — embody the uneven terrain of this reality. Each one is grounded in statistics that reveal the scale and subtlety of this load:
- Large, overbloomed flowers mark the estimated 50% of Black South Africans who support adult dependents.
- Medium blooming flowers represent 27% of youth aged 19–25 already acting as breadwinners.
- Small budding flowers signal the 28% of adults in metros who simultaneously support children and elders.
These fragile forms are not merely decorative — they are quiet interventions, each a symbol of the resilience, tension, and tenderness woven into the act of sustaining others.
The structure looms — skeletal and upright — yet does not shout. It is quiet in its presence, almost reverent, but unmistakably there. Though it stands tall, it echoes an almost invisible force: a constant, often unspoken pressure that shapes the lives of many South Africans. As viewers approach, the sculpture responds to touch with a slight tremble — a shifting that mirrors the instability of burden: always felt, sometimes seen, rarely acknowledged.
Together, the woven plastic and organza hold a visual tension between weight and grace. Mthwalo Wami Uyangisinda honours the complex beauty of carrying others, not just the burden, but the gentleness that endures beneath.
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Sources: The Citizen. “Funding the Family: Black Tax and the Sandwich Generation Are on the Rise.” 2024. News24. “Black People Find Themselves Having to Pay Black Tax – Survey.” 2016. City Press. “Black Tax: The Unspoken Burden That’s Driving South Africans to Financial Distress.” 2025. University of Johannesburg. “Understanding Black Tax Among Working-Class Millennials.” Research Report