Mohlohlodi

Medium: Three colour lithograph
Paper size: 57 x 72 cm
Image size: 46 x 61
Edition size: 20

"Mohlolodi (Lydenburgia cassinoides) is an endemic tree of the Mpumalanga-Limpopo escarpment mountains. This specific stand of trees is situated on a hill near Lekgalameetse and is only accessible via an ancient footpath far from any roads. The top of the hill has the remains of an old stone wall encircling it. Across the Limpopo Drakensberg escarpment, people have been moving off the mountains for decades, trading breathtaking rocky views for access to infrastructure and a globalising world. The terraces of their farms, fenceposts and kraal walls are all that remain, slowly sinking back into the hills and the veldt. However, many people still live in the foothills and tell stories of their mountain homesteads and the places where they grew up and used to live. Through working with catchment restoration in the area, I have learnt about how crucial people are to the functioning of these afromontane ecosystems. Where the timber industry, poorly managed nature reserves and mines have displaced people from their ancestral lands, the slopes have become degraded, riddled with bare soil, encroached with alien invasive plants and moribund biomass. Where people burn the veld, harvest its foods and care about the mountains, it is also still possible for beautiful indigenous plants like Mohlolodi to thrive." Simon Attwood, 2026