We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here

Thero Makepe

2024  — Botswana, South Africa

About this series

This body of work is an exploration of Botswana and South Africa’s socio-political fabric through a personal lens. Blending staged portraiture, documentary images and re-enactments, I weave personal family stories with national history. These images are part of a photobook that addresses the history of musicality and activism in my family lineage.
In 1958, my grandfather, Hippolytus Mothopeng, fled South Africa to escape racist Apartheid law. He went to Botswana, a far more peaceful country under British protection that eventually achieved independence in 1966. He worked as a town clerk in Lobatse and Gaborone and as a hobbyist jazz musician. 
In contrast, my grandfather’s uncle, Zephaniah Mothopeng, a teacher by profession, became an activist and joined the Pan-African Congress of Azania (PAC), eventually becoming the president of this political party. As a prominent leader of the struggle against Apartheid, my great-uncle Zephania Mothopeng served two separate jail sentences on Robben Island, the latter in 1979 for threatening to overthrow the government, for which he was sentenced to 15 years.
The title of the project, “We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here”, is a phrase explored in the minds of different family members during crises, separation, and ennui. In my photobook, I also write about my own experiences with activism during the #FeesMustFall protests that took place at the University of Cape Town in 2016, fighting for free, decolonized education across all South African universities.

Photographer: Thero Makepe
Nationality: Motswana
Based in: Gaborone, Botswana 
Website:theromakepe.com
Instagram: @theromakepe

Thero Makepe (b. 1996, Botswana) is a multimedia artist born and raised in Gaborone, Botswana. Living and working between Gabarone, Cape Town and Johannesburg, Makepe completed his Bachelor of Fine Art with distinction at the University of Cape Town, majoring in photography.
Makepe, currently focused on photography, employs the moving image as an aesthetic vehicle through which he examines familial, social and geopolitical histories. Within this framework, Makepe engages historic events to explore the liminal spaces between collective and personal memory, foregrounded by his own lyrical and spiritual sensibilities.
In 2023, Makepe was selected for Foam Museum’s Talent program for 2024-2025. As a Foam Talent, Makepe’s work was published in Foam Magazine’s #65: Talent Issue and debuted with a group exhibition at the Foam Museum in Amsterdam.
In 2019, Makepe co-founded The Botswana Pavillion, which is dedicated to developing Botswana’s artistic archive and representation in the international arts arena.