Ngwana Yo Sa Lleng O Hwela Tharing The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease.

The current collection is motivated by the African proverb. Famously known in Sepedi ‘Monna Ke Nku O Llela Teng’, which can be translated as ‘a man is a sheep, he cries silently’. The collection looks at the accepted role of a man as a ‘provider’.

The collection reminds that there is much to this role of a ‘provider’. The role means that one is always at presser of getting money regardless of the unspoken hardships involved the process. Furthermore this role leaves a man to be regarded as useless, irresponsible and voiceless, if he cannot provide. With the current collection I explore with my stories as a man or as the artist in the journey of accessing income. The journey that involves long trips with public transport, hard-labours, servitude, hustle and more. Moreover the titles of the collection are drawn from powerful idioms and proverbs.

‘Ngwana Yo Sa Lleng O Hwela Tharing’ is a proverb noted in Sepedi here. The proverb can be translated as ‘the baby that does not cry, dies in the infant carrier’. The work Ngwana Yo Sa Lleng O Hwela Tharing (The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease) (2025) features ideal design of the infant carrier and the bold inscription ‘6 1’. In the street dice language six-one is an idiom meaning money. The work alludes to the fact that activeness and appearing are important for success or money making. The work also says that the crying inside of men is the dying of men. The work also functions as the blanket to provide warmth, to indicate another role of men which is to protect.