This project explores Botswana and South Africa’s socio-political landscape through a personal lens, blending staged portraiture, documentary images and re-enactments to weave family history with national events. It is part of a photobook reflecting on the musical and activist legacy within Makepe’s lineage.

In 1958 Makepe’s grandfather, Hippolytus Mothopeng, fled apartheid-era South Africa for Botswana, a British-protected territory that gained independence in 1966. He worked as a town clerk and a hobbyist jazz musician. In contrast his uncle, Zephaniah Mothopeng, joined the Pan-African Congress of Azania (PAC) and eventually led the party. A prominent anti-apartheid activist, he was twice imprisoned on Robben Island, serving a 15-year sentence from 1979 for attempting to overthrow the government.

The project’s title, ‘We Didn’t Choose to Be Born Here’, reflects family struggles with displacement and adversity. Makepe’s photobook also incorporates his own activism during the #FeesMustFall protests at the University of Cape Town in 2016, which advocated for free, decolonised education in South Africa.

Through varied photographic styles, Makepe constructs a non-linear narrative that highlights his maternal family’s resilience despite decades of political oppression, migration and separation. Amid these challenges he hopes viewers find a sense of hope, celebration and triumph.

Artist Bio:

Thero Makepe is an artist and photographer from Gaborone, Botswana. He works between Cape Town, Johannesburg and Gaborone. His practice explores personal responsibility in times of crisis and how individual choices shape families and nations.

Makepe often creates book projects incorporating archival materials such as family photos, documentary screenshots and newspaper articles. His work blends staged portraiture, documentary photography and re-enactments to examine past and present narratives. He is also a founding member of the Botswana Pavilion, a collective dedicated to advancing Botswana’s artistic development and creative archive. Through photography Makepe aims to provoke thought and preserve cultural history.