Judith Westerveld, a visual artist with roots in both South Africa and in the Netherlands, reflects with her work on the omnipresent impact of the Dutch colonization of South Africa. Through diverse audio-visual installations, films, photo collages, and performances, Westerveld questions and unveils who is remembered and acknowledged, and whose stories and perspectives are consequently lost.

With language, memory, oral history, and archival material central to her practice, she actively uncovers how historical narratives are preserved and who is silenced. It is crucial to be aware of the constructed nature of history and memory to understand how historical narratives are formed and why we have certain ideas of the past. Through this lens, she aims to highlight the lasting impact of the colonial past on the present.

In Message from Mukalap, the unique sound recording of a man named Mukalap made around 1936 in South Africa, forms the starting point of the film. He speaks in the Khoe language !ora, a language that is now no longer spoken and calls out the ignorance of Europeans, as they present their history and languages as conclusive, leaving out many perspectives and nuances. “Just listen,” he asks us.

In her response, Westerveld acknowledges his message. In a multilingual montage of English, Dutch, Afrikaans, and !ora, she tells him she hears him and listens. The loss of a language is not only the loss of a way of speaking, but also the loss of perspectives, stories and ways of being. How can we preserve, historicize and memorialize in a post-colonial context?

Messages from Mukalap is featured in a block dedicated to Judith Westerveld’s work on the colonial legacies of South Africa.