Everyone loves a bit of mystique. One of the things I love is unravelling that mystique and solving the mystery of the Cape Town scene.

Before VERVE I had never been to events of the like that I attend today. I was just like everyone else, going to the same parties, drinking at the same bars. Now though, every new event is an adventure, and sometimes even a mystery. MENSE though was unique.

I had yet to see something that perfectly enmeshed the cultural scene I traverse today with my own background in the suburbs of the city.

Art? Graassies? B-Boying? 13 year old me was ecstatic. Thus began my sleuthing into the mystery of MAMOQ, the curators behind MENSE. Even their Instagram handle, “@whatismamoq”, told me nothing. But when I reached out, I met two of the warmest individuals, humble yet passionate about their mission to subvert expecations and the pretentiousness of the culture - their mission to peel back the layers of who we are and what we believe ourselves to be

The poster for the upcoming MENSE 2 event

What is MENSE?

Yaaseen: “So I came up with MENSE just like that on the spot. It was like “Yoh what’s the name for this mense?” and then we got it from that.”

Bronwyn: “We were actually writing down all the names that we could use and Yaseen was like “Yah mense” and we just all went silent. We knew that was it.”

Yaaseen: “I’m very good at creating things out of nothing.”

“I love giving things names bra. And it relates to the culture of the people, the history of the people, and the relatability and teaching of people. You know like, if you don’t know what the slang means, come and ask us, interact with us, and engage with us. That’s what it’s about. I don’t want to just spoon feed everybody. Nowadays everybody wants to be spoonfed. If you want to do something, make the effort. So that’s where MENSE came from.”

Myself, speaking as a Cape Coloured, everything about this takes me back to my childhood, like the Graassies and the B-Boying. I remember growing up and going to Good Hope centre to see stuff like that but now I personally don’t know where to find that anymore.

Yaaseen: “I also don’t know. But I do know people that do know so you link those people and we’re very good at linking the right people and giving them a platform and allowing them the space to freely do what they want to do.”

Bronwyn: “It was kind of a thing that was bound to happen because I’m a professional ballet dancer, so I’m connected a lot with the dance industry. So Yaaseen has also done a lot of other creative things like making furniture, clothing, and he’s been in all sorts of industries. We kind of just questioned how we could mesh all of the things that we do separately, together.”

“You know, I didn’t even know what a Graassie was. Four years ago, before I met him - no actually two years ago - Yaaseen introduced me to Graassies. I grew up in Joburg, so there’s no culture at all there with Grasshopper shoes. Not at all.”

Yaaseen: “Well, where she lived…”

Bronwyn: “Yeah, as a white person as well. It’s not a thing. Even if you had to speak to the other people there, it’s not there. There’s not as much mense around Graassies.”

Yaaseen: “Nah, I disagree. I feel like if you go to the different areas in Joburg, you’ll find Graassies brah. Like proper Graassies. Which my love over here obviously wasn’t exposed to.”

Laughter around the table.

Bronwyn: “But that’s what we want MENSE to be. It’s about bringing people like me, who know nothing about a Grasshopper shoe, and bringing people through - who have the years of experiencing them through school - through their lives, any way that they associate with Graassies, and bringing them together.”

So may I ask, what is the affiliation with Grasshopper. Is it an official sponsorship?

Bronwyn: “No. We’re not affiliated with Grasshoppers at all. Not yet.”

Yaaseen: “We just took our own money, I saw an opportunity, and I just thought that everybody needed to wear Graassies. Not just coloured people. It needs to be black people, white people, chinese, indian, whatever.”

“I took that opportunity and I had a database from the different industries that I had been in, and we’ve sold shoes to everybody. That’s the whole life behind it. People need to be exposed to it because it is a local brand, it’s handmade, it’s biodegradable, it’s breathable, and it’s got everything.”

“You know what actually triggered it? There was this big local fashion guy that did this big collaboration with Grasshopper. And I was so disappointed by it - not thinking that I’d be disappointed by it. This was some bougie kak that some bougie stylist decided to do and was handpicked by them. I felt it embarrassed the shoes -and the culture behind the shoes. That triggered me to go “Well, I know the factory, I can go there and style the shoes”.”

Speaking on that, how would you describe the history and the culture of the shoe? What does it mean to you?

Yaaseen: “So, I only started wearing Graassies now in like the past six years. I’m not gonna lie, I never really liked them, and I thought the soles were too high. I’m a flat sole guy. But then they brought out the flat sole and some colours. I love colours, and I thought it was amazing.”

“My only affiliation with Graassies is when I was at school and the brasse who used to bully me wore Graassies - it was a cool kid shoe.”

What about the B-Boying then?

Yaaseen: “Like I said earlier on, Ambrose (Ambrose Uren). That’s it. I love dance, I love so many facets of entertainment, theatre, all of it. I’ve put myself in those spaces and I’ve been surrounded by it my whole life. I love experiencing and being able to be a part of it and being around super talented people. People don’t know that they’re super talented. We’re just trying to provide a platform here and give that extra gees to just show themselves.”

Bronwyn: “Also, B-Boys bring the gees. They just bring the vibe and energy. All the people that I’ve met that breakdance are always lekker. There’s no one that’s uptight or bougie. They’ll rock up, do their thing, they’ll bring the people, and they’ll bring the vibe. So, that was one thing.”

Yaseen: “Yeah, for me, it originated from the company that we have now. It’s called MAMOQ.”

Bronwyn: “Yeah, Jeriah what did you think that meant?”

I read it like that. MAMOQ means like ‘mah mok’ (throw up) right? (laughter)

Yaaseen: “Exactly! Why MAMOQ, is because I’ve done a lot. I’ve had hair salons, I’ve done furniture, I’ve couture dresses, suits, belts, bags, shooting, modeling, photography, and all the stuff. Basically, MAMOQ is everything under one roof. I’ve always wanted to create that. And now we’re busy doing that. We haven’t launched MAMOQ yet, but this is just a little soft launch to it.”

Bronwyn: “We’re just planting a little seed out there.”

Yaaseen: “Yeah, it’s just a little introduction to what MAMOQ is. MAMOQ is for the mense and bringing up all the kak that you might’ve experienced growing up but it’s not a part of who you are. But you learnt it, it’s become a habit, now you have to peel away the layers, and then discover who you actually are as a human being. That’s what MAMOQ is. Just discovering who you are as an individual through experiences and through the right people around you.”

“Growing up, I had nothing, but at a very young age, I realised that I actually had everything. My mom said to me “look here, I don’t have work, but we’ve got bread, we’ve got butter, we’ve got a place to stay, and just be patient with me”. I don’t know how I understood it at five years old but I knew I was lucky in this world. I had a mom, a grandpa, my sister, I could walk to school, I’ve got a lot of books, and I could borrow a cricket bat if I didn’t have one. I was on top of the world bra.”

“For me, how that came about was just sharing. That’s the word that just always stuck with me. It’s about shared experiences. And that’s how we learn. That’s what MAMOQ is.”

Bronwyn: “Also just to add to that, the name MAMOQ -again I didn’t know what it meant. So, it’s bringing the fact that if we were to speak about MAMOQ to someone who had no idea what it meant, they’d be like “oh my word, my mok?” Whereas people like yourself, you know what it actually means and it’s really funny.”

“It’s also playing on the idea of bringing those kinds of people together - those who don’t know and those who know what MAMOQ means.”

Yaseen: “Yeah, and with MAMOQ, when you do throw up, it doesn’t feel lekker, but once you’re done, it feels lekker. We want to trigger people. We want them to stand for this, but to also question why they stand for this. Where did you get your opinion? Where did you get your perspective? Is it from you or is it from something you heard of? Is it something you saw? Why do you have the perspective you have, you know man? We want to trigger people that way.”

Bronwyn: “That’s exactly what we said with the artists. We just gave them a pair of shoes and told them to just dala. That’s what Mamoq is about. We’re not going to give you a theme and we’re not going to give you an outline. You need to do what you need to do.”

“If it’s a minimal design, cool. If it’s a hectic, flamboyant design, do it. Just MAMOQ it.”

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A post shared by MAMOQ (@whatismamoq)

So with the event, what could people expect to see and experience?

Bronwyn: “Don’t expect anything because then you’ll be pleasantly surprised. On the surface level explanation of it, there’s going to be an art exhibition showcasing the shoes, there’s the B-Boy battle, there’s food, there’s music, and there’s mense.”

“Everything else and everything in between will happen because of the mense. That’s the outline, but the people will create the vibe.”

Yaseen: “And from an aspect of culture, if you’re not a part of it, and you don’t come, shame. Nowadays, the mense dilute all the experiences. If you go to many places, people just sit on their phones or will be holding their phones up while watching the shows. You’re not really experiencing it to the fullest.”

“I think society today dilutes everything. That’s where the essence and the beauty of everything is - when you just sit there and submerge yourself in the experience. It's a beautiful thing. Just be present in that moment.”

Bronwyn: “That’s why if you see the Mamoq Instagram feed, there’s not much. Our way of speaking to people about Mamoq is like this chat we’re having right now. We want to go old school with anything and everything we do. Unfortunately with social media, there is a way that you have to get stuff out there in some way. But how we’re actually building our marketing for this is connecting with people personally.”

“We’re not relying on social media. We’re messaging every single person that we think would want to come to this event. We’re not just going to upload the poster and expect people to come. That’s how Mamoq is moving forward.”

Yaaseen: “And you’ll find that if you don’t hear of Mamoq through word of mouth, then you’re not going to hear about it. We’re not always going to do marketing for an event. People will have to speak about it. That’s the only way you’re going to find out.”

For the event Yaaseen and Bronwyn gave various artists a blank canvas brief, in the for of a pair of Grasshoppers. The shoes formed the focal point of the exhibition, with each on display as well as a short documentary interviewing the artists on themselves and their work.

It was interesting listening to the artists reflect on how and what they consider an artist to be - as that is a topic that comes up often in the scope of what we do here. in the words of Romi Flowers, “I feel like it's just anybody that creates out of nothing, that turns whatever is in their imagination into something.”.

Dorian Watson on the other hand feels that “When you say artist you kind of touch on the creative word as well, and I believe everyone is a creative at heart. No matter what field of work you're in, your thought process is the creative CPU.”

A common inspiration for the artists when working on the shoes was their own history with the shoe, and the culture that it reflects, or even for Pieter Lübbe a specific time in his life and how the concept of a shoe reflected a period in his life where he was exploring other cultures. “It comes from a time when I was teaching English in Europe, one of my students often went mushroom picking with his family. While waiting for him I ended up doodling mushrooms - so I went with that because it represented a phase in my life where I opened myself up to different cultures and different people. Me walking and moving through life.”

Brothers Husain and Hasan Essop took it a little closer to home on the other hand, deciding to take inspiration from their own backgrounds and cultures. Husain made use of patterns inspired by his environment to depict what being South African means to him, while Hasan depicted the tableau of Bo-Kaap by, in his words, “tying it into my own culture and heritage, because it’s a very important place for Islamic identity, and the shoe has been around for many generations, so it was a perfect melting pot of two cultures.”

All in all Yaaseen and Bronwyn achieved what they had set out to do - curate and event for the MENSE. A diverse group of people, young and old, artsy or not, it was hard for anyone to feel out of place there.

It was refereshing to attend an event without the usual expectations and actually just be present in the moment. Whether you were there for the B-boying, for the Grassies, for the music, or just for a lekker dite, there was something for everyone. And the shoes were a sight to behold.

Be sure to attend the next MENSE event at The Commons on Friday the 18th July, and keep an eye on MAMOQ to see what else is in store.

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