Mmakgabo mapula helen sebidi

As her mother was working as a domestic worker in the city for much of her childhood, she grew up with her grandmother, who taught her the values that would guide and sustain her life.

Everard read

This includes the channelling of spirit back into the world through hard work, the commitment of the self to the community, but most of all through acts of creativity — whether this be cooking, constructing mud walls, creating murals, making pots and decorating calabashes, weaving, beading, dress-making, knitting, drawing or painting.

For Mmakgabo Sebidi, the artist starts from a root of pain and conflict and works her way towards the redemption of both herself and those around her through the act of making. The creator becomes invisible during this process and is the channel through which the spirit world flows. The artwork can be seen as the trace of this redemptive journey.

Mmakgabo Sebidi spent much of her young adult life she left school after Grade 8 as a domestic worker in Johannesburg. Before moving to Johannesburg she had never seen white people. Following a period of false imprisonment for stealing food, she started to occupy her spare time making dresses and knitting. She sent the money home to help support her grandmother and her extended family.

When a German employer — Heidi — starting painting, Sebidi expressed an interest in painting herself and was given her first set of oil paints. She then sought lessons and finally joined the art classes of John Koenakeefe Mohl before returning to Marapyane in to look after her ailing grandmother. During the early 80s she also trained at the Katlehong Arts Centre to improve her clay technique.