Pretoria, South Africa – On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, Dr. Esther Mahlangu, known for her incredible artwork representing the Ndebele people of South Africa, received a special award from the University of South Africa. She was given an honorary doctorate in Mathematics, even though she never went to university.

Dr. Mahlangu paints big, colorful pictures that show off her Ndebele heritage. She’s never been to art school herself, but she teaches others in her village how to paint and make traditional beadwork.

Her paintings are famous all over the world because they’re so bright and full of interesting shapes. Even though they look simple, they’re actually very complicated because she repeats patterns in a clever way.

The university decided to give her this special award because they think her art is like a form of math. They believe it’s important to recognize and respect different ways of knowing, especially those that come from Africa.

“Here at University of South Africa we recognise Dr Mahlangu’s work as something that go beyond art. It is our firm belief that her work is a form of mathematics and should therefore be recognised as such. As an African university, we have a responsibility to recognise and declare our Indigenous knowledge systems and to ensure that they do not play second fraud to other knowledge system in the world,” said the University of South Africa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Puleng Lenkabula.

One of Dr. Mahlangu’s biggest achievements was when she was asked to decorate a BMW car with Ndebele designs. This was a big deal because usually only very famous artists get to do that.

The car she painted was shown in museums in the United States and the United Kingdom.Getting this honorary doctorate is not just about Dr. Mahlangu.

It’s also about celebrating the rich culture of the Ndebele people and showing that art can be a way of understanding the world in a different, but equally important, way.