Meet Nongcebo Mchunu, a designer who uses fashion to tell the stories of her people

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April is not just an ordinary month in South Africa. It is known as Freedom Month, where South Africans commemorate the 27th as Freedom Day, the day in which the country held its first post-apartheid fair elections in 1994.

To celebrate Freedom Month, we look at Mantra Africa, a South African brand that uses fashion to tell the stories of black people.

Mantra Africa is a brand owned by Nongcebo Mchunu, a talented designer from Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal. The mother of two is an engineering technologist by profession and does fashion on the side.

Mchunu says she has always loved fashion but was reluctant to pursue it as a career due to fear of failure. The more she tried to run away from it, the most the passion grew inside her.

Then in 2018, she enrolled on short courses at Nubase Academy. In 2020, she decided to enhance her skills and study further at Fezile Fashion Skills Academy to learn about Advanced Patterns and Advanced Garment Construction.

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Seeing her talent, her classmates encouraged her to enter the Durban Fashion Fair (DFF) mentorship programme, and she made it to the #DFFClassOf2020Mentees.

“I didn’t think they’d consider me. There were many hiccups with the pandemic, but we eventually showcased at DFF, held at the Durban ICC on December 11, 2020. That was my first runway show, the first time I dipped my feet in the fashion world, and it was exhilarating. An out of body experience. A few months later, I was selected as one of the top 8 for the Vodacom Durban July rising stars,” says the designer.

At DFF, they were required to put together a collection under the theme “The show goes on”. They were instructed to take inspiration from the townships. Mchunu showcased “Aluta Continua”, a collection inspired by all the people in history who fought for the liberation of the people.

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Dropped shoulder baby doll dress by Mantra Africa. Picture: Gift Dick Banda.

“Since we themed our collection Aluta Continua, which means ‘the struggle continues’ we wanted to draw attention to what freedom looks like to the average black South African post ’94. To say that it’s still not over, people are still struggling, even though the show does go on,” says Mchunu.

The successful show at DFF opened many doors for her. In 2021, she was invited to showcase at the Creative Africa Nexus Festival. This time around, she had to create a collection under the “Bridging the Gap” theme, and came up with Amabhinca. Ibhinca refers to a Zulu person who practises the Zulu traditions, including wearing traditional attire and listening to maskandi music.

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Mantra Africa designs. Picture: Gift Dick Banda.

“Being from eMachunwini, I wanted to celebrate my people, the Amabhinca, in a very modern way. Something that is authentically African but can also stand on a global stage. This was a follow-up range to Aluta, since we didn’t have enough time to do the full range for DFF because of Covid. I wanted this range to complete that story in terms of the aesthetic but introduce a pop of colour,” says Mchunu.

Currently, she is working on a capsule ready-to-wear collection for winter.