Izivubeko is the beginning of a long‐term documentary project that looks at the history of violence in South Africa through personal narratives, its lasting trauma and how that continues to play out in present day South Africa, especially with regards to how South Africans explore and experience space. In conversation with his mother, journalist Malibongwe Tyilo interviews her about a place they both love, the mountain top forest village/town of Hogsback, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

Deep in the Amathole mountains, and surrounded by Xhosa villages, Hogsback remains a getaway loved by tourists. Most of the
properties and businesses are owned by white South Africans. The tourists visit largely for the forest, waterfalls, and hiking trails. Malibongwe’s mother, Xoliswa, and his father, Sithembiso, often book themselves into the Hogsback Inn for a couple’s getaway. However, they hardly ever venture out into the woods for a hike. When Malibongwe asks his mother why that is, she
answers: “There’s a lot of white men in those woods.” When he asks why that should matter, she responds, “you wouldn’t understand. We grew up at a time when the presence of a white male meant a possibility of violence.”

In the short film, Malibongwe delves deeper into that conversation with his mother, and joins her on a visit to the Eastern Cape
town of Alicedale, where she grew up on a farm where her parents worked in apartheid South Africa, to further chat about her
relationship with land. The conversation is interspersed with other conversations with femme South African artists who explore
different expressions of violence rooted in racism in their work.

Izivubeko: Xhosa word for scars, specifically the kind that result from being beaten on one’s body.