When Andile Dyalvane speaks about his work, he speaks about clay as if it is alive – a medium that carries memory, healing, and the voice of his ancestors. Born in the Eastern Cape village of Ngobozana in 1978, he grew up shaping oxen and birds from riverbank mud, long before his work entered the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Vitra Design Museum.
Now, with the unveiling of iNkundla, a permanent public monument honouring Nelson Mandela in Tromsø, Norway, his practice has reached a new peak. The title translates to “a place of gathering,” and the work is not simply a monument to be observed but a space for “human-to-human dialogue,” drawing on the vision of Mandela’s 2005 declaration that “the greatest weapon is to sit down together and talk.”
As a community healer for the AmaXhosa tribe, Dyalvane sees his roles as an artist and healer as deeply interconnected. His signature “scarification” technique reflects themes of ritual, memory, and cultural renewal. Speaking to YourLuxury Africa, he shares insights about his new artwork, the importance of gathering, and the ancestors who continue to influence and shape his journey.
YLA: Andile, congratulations on the unveiling of iNkundla in Tromsø. What does it mean to have a permanent monument honouring Nelson Mandela, created by your hands, in the Arctic North?
Andile: It is truly an honour to have had the opportunity to express our shared ethos: being and becoming Ubuntu in action. Structurally expanding communal practice of togetherness, a deeper listening and seeing, all the way in the Arctic North from our South, is a feat that we feel uTata Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela would be proud of.
YLA: Twenty-one years after Mandela’s speech in Tromsø, you were invited to contribute to the monument project. How did that come about?
Andile: Curators Marit Ellisiv Landsend and Sophie Berenika Broch of the city of Tromsø were referred to my work when Ithongo, a collection of ceramic symbol stools, was offered for exhibition – first at my childhood Ngobozana village homestead, then at Southern Guild Gallery in Cape Town, and later at Friedman Benda in New York. They subsequently contacted us to enquire about my interest in their Nelson Mandela monument project.
Tromsø’s municipal government and Nelson Mandela’s 46664 committee had been developing the project for 21 years, since Tata Nelson Mandela’s speech in Tromsø’s Mandela Parken in 2005. An extract from his speech has stayed with me: “The greatest weapon is to sit down together and talk!” We decided to walk the talk and created the tool in which to share honest conversation, using the vision map of Ithongo to guide us.
YLA: What did that creative exchange mean for you as an artist?
Andile: To be capable, as an artist, of expressing universal challenges facing us all with universal spirited messages, and activating a route to resolve them, is a gift for which I have deep reverence and gratitude. Working closely with my partner, Nkuthazo Alexis Dyalvane, who researches, co-creates and writes, we ground ourselves in seeing beyond, as we both recognise all those who came before us as catalysts for our presence. I am grateful for all those who groomed my freedoms in childhood, because they have set a path towards this moment, with Tata Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela as collaborator.
To share in this moment with our Tromsø community of seasoned artisans, curators, indigenous peoples from the Northern Arctic lands, and artists in various fields was just phenomenal.
YLA: Your journey with clay started as a child, playing on the riverbanks of your village. How has that initial, playful connection to the material evolved into a spiritual practice and a globally recognised career?
Andile: When I trace my memories back to childhood, those moments of being in contact with clay stand out. It was a freedom I gave myself. And while the elders leaving me to be within nature is not unfamiliar in the Eastern Cape, it’s different when you are in deep creative contemplation with clay in your hands, making familiar things. The influence of oxen, cows, rondavels, horses, and birds helped me to read something unspoken about presence to life.
In my practice, this unspeakable knowing – an ancestral quintessence, if you will – rises up and flows outward. I see myself as a vessel. This is Umoya, a spirit of source energy that merges with matter and the core narrative of life. For me, clay is a vital tool to harmonise and grapple with parts of myself that seek expression.
OoNomathotholo, a recent body of work currently in New York, took me into deep engagement with grief, both for loss and for ancestral gains. The passing of family members in recent years brought a mixture of sadness and joy, as I witnessed their ascension and felt the fracture of who I was before burying them. At this moment, a new becoming emerges. This is the spirit’s capacity to harmonise beyond the physical. Working with clay helps me consolidate the unspoken, mend fresh fractures, and summon my guides closer.
YLA: Healing is a recurring theme in your work. You are also a community healer for the AmaXhosa tribe. How do your roles as an artist and a healer inform each other?
Andile: Born into the nation of amaXhosa clanspeople feels like a gift to me. In every aspect of what presents as tradition and culture, there is an opportunity for teaching. I relate to lessons relayed through storytelling as the poetry of home. I can see further with my heart’s eye, as one who is immersed in the importance of gathering to cleanse as a family, observing ceremonial protocols, and furthering an understanding for integration into modern, urbanised settings where conversations may negate the importance of lessons or dismiss their relevance.
Intentioning with integrity, the collective synchronicity of intentions, is of utmost importance when it comes to success in ceremony, in building anything together. Setting intentions with softened spirit is the spark that ignites the fires of collective healing. Much like soft, moulded clay that then goes through the fire.
YLA: Your signature “scarification” technique is a powerful visual language. Can you explain where this inspiration comes from and how it communicates the narratives you want to tell?
Andile: Scarification is a portal that I myself have experienced, albeit discreetly positioned according to family ritual codes. These markings heal through insertions of herbs or herbal ashes, which also root you to Mother Earth. Healing truly is the ultimate joint venture of Mother Nature and those who will themselves to meet her nurturing codes halfway. Ritual and ceremonial rites of passage, protection and clan ancestral rooting practices all pertain to being one with the land.
Healing needs ingredients gifted to us from the land, grown in earth and clay. Using this gentle but firm surface-rupturing technique, memory opened up my voice to our practices as Africans. I decided that these shared stories would become the voice reverberating through all my work.
YLA: You co-founded Imiso Ceramics nearly 20 years ago. What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned about sustaining an artistic practice and running a business?
Andile: As we commence with pockets of celebratory moments, we realise that the ups and downs have mapped an endurance we couldn’t have achieved without community.
The immense compassion we need for ourselves as first-generation entrepreneurs and practising artists is imperative, for adaptation to unforeseen environmental and global influences on business and our mental health. Saying “No” and taking a pause before making a decision, can be just as powerful as saying “Yes” to opportunity.
YLA: Your work is now in the collections of major international museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What does it mean for you to see your art on that scale?
Andile: I come from a village where “art” is not in our vocabulary. People who made things made things to share with others. To trade with community members meant you did something that meant something for others’ lives too, for our collective survival. Good gardeners, herders, patient hunters, a grinding-stone mason, a meticulous carpenter who recycles, a roof thatcher – all these villagers are creative. Artistry growing up was not for individual prestige.
I often ask myself why I do what I do, and the answer always remains clear: “To give your community something that helps their spirits rise, helps them to remember how important they are to all of us who struggle to remember.” So, giving to interactive spaces, especially home in the Eastern Cape, means more than institutional accolade or international acclaim.
YLA: For young African artists who look up to your achievements, what advice would you give them about finding their own voice and navigating a career in the arts?
Andile: You will need good company, an encouraging community, family, chosen family, environment, and a strong backbone to remain consistent, with foresight for good timing on your journey. A team that’s willing to expand and contract with you, as business breathes through cycles of change, is important. Remembering your founding intentions regularly, until you truly live your ethos, is of the highest integrity. Remember your true nature. Go to nature for answers, because ultimately, this is home.
