Isidwaba sikaMkabayi: Gender Transgression and Power in Sheli Masondo’s Costume Design for Shaka iLembe

Abstract

This paper presents and analyses costume design in a recent popular South African television series titled Shaka iLembe (Gibson et al., 2024). The series is based on the life and times of the legendary founder of the Zulu nation, Shaka Zulu. The paper focuses on the series’ costume designer, Sheli Masondo’s, disruption of normative gender identities in traditional Zulu attire. Masondo’s designs reconstruct the character of Mkabayi kaJama in the television series by combining isidwaba (a traditional female leather skirt) with ibeshu (a traditional male back apron) to create a sartorial language that articulates Mkabayi’s political power and military authority, as it presents a transgressive femininity. The paper argues that Masondo’s designs present gender ambiguity in costume design in ways that challenge essentialist notions of gender in traditional African contexts, even as they remain rooted in authentic practices in traditional Zulu material culture. Furthermore, the paper argues that Masondo’s approach represents a fascinating case of costume as both historical reconstruction and feminist intervention, positioning dress as a site where gender, power, and cultural authenticity are negotiated to intersect in modern cultural practice.

https://doi.org/10.26803/MyRes.2026.17