Noted South African Ndebele artist and international icon Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu will on Monday receive an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Johannesburg (UJ).

Mahlangu is the third recipient of an honorary doctorate conferred by the university during this year’s Autumn graduation season.

UJ Executive Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (Fada) Professor Federico Freschi said the university recognised Mahlangu for her legacy as a cultural entrepreneur, who skillfully negotiated local and global worlds, and as an educator.

Freschi added that Mahlangu was an example of how authentic African knowledge systems could be meaningfully and sustainably articulated.

“In her, we have an icon worthy of being looked up to by the next generation of creatives, and the university, in particular Fada is greatly honoured to confer the degree of Philosophiae Doctor honoris causa upon her,” he said.

Mahlangu began painting as a child and at the age of ten, according to tradition,  was taught the art of Ndebele homestead wall painting and beadwork by her mother and grandmother.

Her work came to international attention in 1989 after being included in the Magiciens de la terre exhibition, held at the Centre Pompidou, in Paris.

In 1991, she was the first woman and the first person outside Europe and the US to be commissioned by BMW to paint their latest 525i model for the BMW Art Car Series.

Her designs were also used on the tails of British Airways aircrafts in 1997, and on the new Fiat 500.

In 2017, she was celebrated with a mural by artist Imani Shanklin Roberts on a Tribeca boulevard in New York.

She also collaborated with Swedish fashion designer Eytys and her designs were embroidered on the Doja Mahlangu series, reaching the ramp of more than one European Fashion Week. 

Over the past three decades, Mahlangu has exhibited both mural and canvas paintings throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America, also capturing the imagination of more than one generation on social media through charitable campaigns.

In 2017, she collaborated with singer John Legend in a Belvedere Vodka advertising campaign, along with RED (a Bono-founded charitable organisation) to raise awareness and raise funds for the fight against HIV/Aids in Africa. She created large special edition bottles of Belvedere for auction. 

Next month, Mahlangu will participate in an international women’s exhibition, where conceptual artist Yoko Ono will also exhibit, at the Nirox Foundation Sculpture Park located in the Cradle of Humankind. 

As a national icon and custodian of heritage Mahlangu received an Order of Ikhamanga, silver class in 2006, as well as the Mpumalanga Arts and Culture Award, an award from the French Ministry of Culture, two awards from Radio Ndebele, and many others from South Africa and abroad.