Karabo Mooki celebrates South Africa’s first Black show jumper

Karabo Mooki is a photographer who’s become well loved for his depiction of community across Johannesburg, from the city’s all-female skate groups and Soweto’s underground punk rock scene. He has a gift for visual storytelling, and his practice has become a platform for narratives that highlight the importance of Black identity and representation.

His latest series Black Rein, is no different. It follows the professional equestrian rider Enos Mafokate – the country’s first Black show jumper and a competitor in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The series honours his life’s work, in light of the setbacks he has experienced in the sport, subjected to oppressive segregation laws growing up under apartheid. Now running a non-profit organisation in Soweto to provide young Black riders with access to training in the historically white, elitist sport, the athlete’s foundation has broken down barriers to the field and made him “a pillar for the community”, says Karabo.

“When I met Enos Mafokate, I felt I was in the presence of a freedom fighter. His journey inspired me, learning about how he overcame unjust adversity and the inhumane challenges he faced throughout his life”, continues Karabo. Pursuing the desire to witness Enos’ personal stories, the photographer embarked on a photo project that would document the riders’ labour and therefore “change the face of equestrian horse riding in South Africa”.

Much like his past pursuits in photo documentary, Karabo worked alongside the athlete and the community surrounding the Enos Mafokate Centre, all the while avoiding an overly curated approach to his image making. “Finding patience and remaining observational allows for me to capture the truth of life as it unfolds and for the purity of the story to come through,” he explains, “the framing comes naturally once you are working with trust.” The resulting images are a window into the everyday reality and rituals of Enos and his school’s riders; authentic portraits of the lives Karabo has been invited into and an insight into how the athlete’s legacy is living in the surrounding community.

The project’s title Black Rein is a nod to a play on the words reign and rein. Whilst reins have historically been a “tool for control”, the term also made the photographer wonder about the power of putting reins in the hands of Black Riders, Karabo tells us. “The meaning of the word reign also led me to explore the idea of Black royalty,” he says – his portraits of Enos frame the athlete with a noble, aristocratic air.

The series also addresses the community’s lack of exposure to horses outside of historical labour roles – “something that perpetuates the exclusion of equestrian sports from the Black community”, says Karabo. In capturing Black people involved in the sport, the photographer pushes for the kind of representation that allows young people in Soweto to see a place for themselves in the equestrian world – “a historically colonial sport”.

“How diverse a sport is, is often an indicator of a nation’s political progress,” Karabo says. “For decades during apartheid, South Africa was barred from entering international competitions like the Olympics because of its refusal to desegregate teams.” With the belief that representation is always a catalyst for change, Karabo hopes that the series makes visible “the radical work that is happening within the sport”. He ends: “Stories from Black communities told or shared by Black storytellers will always be important to me, and the time for it has been long overdue. I continue to learn how important it is to be a vessel for the stories from my community and to be taught by people that represent us.”