iQhiya Collective is a network of young black female artists based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. They specialise in a broad range of artistic disciplines including performance art, video, photography, sculpture and other mediums.
iQhiya is an isiXhosa word for the cloth women use on their heads to carry water vessels. This is meant to represent "unshakable power" and an infinite love for the collective. Originally formed by Asemahle Ntonti, Bronwyn Katz, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Bonolo Kavula, Charity Kelapile, Lungiswa Gqunta, Matlhogonolo Kelapile, Sethembile Msezane, Sisipho Ngodwana, Thandiwe Msebenzi, and Thuli Gamedze.
The iQhiya collective is an art collective which wants to challenge the South African art monopoly that favors white, male owned galleries and black, male artists through collaborative work asserting their presence in important art venues in South Africa. The collective was formed in June 2015 in Cape Town as a response to young black female artists voices being marginalized, thus forming a collective that can magnify their voices. It aims to create a safe space where female artists can share their concepts and ideas, and forms a network of women that can continuously display works of art as a collective and support each other's individual careers. They seek to contest and transform invisible institutional lines that consciously or unconsciously continue to marginalize black female voices in the art world.
The iQhiya collective has been connected to black feminist theory by recognizing mainstream feminism as a movement that previously tend to excluded the works of black females. Simultaneously, some members of iQhiya speak of black feminism and the importance of narrating black female stories.