Cape Town Arts Festival Explores Rooibos as Symbol of Colonial Labour and Memory
Cape Town's Suidoosterfees features a visual art installation and performance by Yonela Makoba using teabag paper and soil to examine rooibos as a symbol of land dispossession and erased labour.
A visual art installation built from teabag paper and soil opened at Cape Town's Suidoosterfees, examining rooibos as a symbol of colonial land dispossession and erased labour.
The installation, titled "Rooi-Land," is by Cape Town multidisciplinary artist Yonela Makoba and runs through May 3 at the Marble Foyer of the Artscape Theatre Centre. The festival's program describes it as using "soil constellations and objects crafted from teabag paper" to explore themes of "ritual, gendered labour and the legacy of colonial theft."
Makoba is also staging a companion performance, "Maak Ons Tee" (Make Us Tea), at the Piazza steps outside Artscape. The 20-minute, free-admission performance invites audiences to experience "the ritualistic preparation of rooibos tea." It runs April 30 at noon, May 2 at 4:30 p.m., and May 3 at 7:30 p.m.
The title carries an etymology the program notes in passing: many people believe the isiZulu and isiXhosa word "makoti," meaning a newly wed woman or bride, derives from the domestic instruction "make us tea." Makoba's performance sits at that intersection between the ordinary and the ceremonial.
The 2026 Suidoosterfees runs April 29 through May 3 at Artscape, with the theme "Tuiste" (Home). The visual arts program, curated by Carin Bester, carries the title "Komvandaan: Waar die natuur jou naam onthou," which translates as "Where nature remembers your name."
Sources: Suidoosterfees 2026 visual arts program; Artscape Theatre Centre.