Mapalakata

Mapalakata is an extinct word recorded in oral traditions of the area meaning ‘mysterious visitors’— which was used to describe foreign traders who moved through Southern Africa long before the time of contemporary European colonisation. Robin Bernstein, first travelled to and photographed along the Mpumalanga Escarpment, a dramatic part of South Africa’s Great Escarpment, in 2019. Mapalakata explores this surrounding landscape and offers a visual reassessment of a key historical and geographical region in Southern Africa.