Tuli Mekondjo: Afrotekismo
Hales is delighted to announce Afrotekismo, a solo presentation of video works by Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo (b. 1982 Angola). Exploring a medium central to Mekondjo’s rich multi-disciplinary practice, this focused display of three seminal time-based works, Afrotekismo (2020), Kalunga Ka Nangobe / God of Nangobe (2021) and Saara Omulaule: Black Saara (2023), highlights her rigorous engagement with video as a way to speak to Namibia’s colonial past and present.
Works from this show have been in several recent institutional presentations, including Mekondjo’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland currently on view at the Kunsthalle Bern (2025); the 15th Edition of the Biennale de Dakar, Senegal (2024); and the National Museum of Cameroon (2023), among others. The exhibition coincides with Mekondjo’s major commission for the German Bundestag, Berlin and follows her inclusion in the Stellenbosch Triennale, South Africa (2025), and the Museo Novecento, Florence, Italy (2024-25).
Mekondjo’s sensitive explorations of history and ancestry both question and heal parts of the past, deftly weaving moments of trauma with optimism for the future. Her videos draw upon her archival research and build on improvised narratives and performance. In Kalunga Ka Nangobe / God of Nangobe and Saara Omulaule: Black Saara, Mekondjo considers cultural and spiritual identity in the context of colonisation, asking why the Aawambo people, her ancestors, embraced Christianity under colonial rule and the present-day implications. In Kalunga Ka Nangobe / God of Nangobe, dialogue spoken in Oshiwambo (specifically the Kwanyama dialect) underlines the apparent and non-apparent ties between the ancient beliefs of Aawambo people with modern day Christian imagery.
Saara Omulaule: Black Saara, developed during Mekondjo’s DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Programme (2022-2023), addresses a mid-nineteenth century missionary song titled Musta Saara, meaning Black Saara in Finnish. The song describes a young Black school girl who converts to Christianity and in the process of ascending to heaven becomes white. In the video, Mekondjo brings this history to the fore in a performance embodying ‘Black Saara,’ wearing traditional missionary attire and white face paint.
Afrotekismo looks at the contemporary challenges of migration from rural areas to the urban towns in Namibia. The video sees Mekondjo in the city of Windhoek, Namibia, performing on a busy high street where she creates a ritual from the inherited practices of her village. Saving these rituals from being forgotten in contemporary life, Mekondjo wears raffia, referring to her clan’s totem, Ovakwanaidhi, ‘the grass people.’
The exhibition also features textile sculptures which echo the films in their relationship to the body, land, and heritage. Mekondjo crochets the works by hand, evoking the traditional labour of women’s work, the woven threads emulating veins as if the insides of the body form a protective armour. Each piece bears the name of a place in Namibia, often mountain ranges, directly connecting the body to the land.
