A collaborator and friend of the artist Zanele Muholi was pushed down a staircase at an Airbnb in Amsterdam on Saturday. Muholi posted a video on Instagram that showed her friend, the writer and filmmaker Sibahle Nkumbi, being shoved by the husband of her Airbnb host as he says “out now.” Nkumbi, a South African student currently based in Switzerland, was taken to the hospital, interviewed by police, and later released; she suffered multiple bruises and a concussion. Her unnamed, 47-year-old assailant has since been charged with attempted manslaughter, according to Huffington Post South Africa.
“All he had to say was, ‘leave now,’” she said in a video interview with journalist Kevin P. Roberson. Instead, Nkumbi said, he yelled: “You people, you are not the great artist that you think you are. You are not the queen that you think you are. This is not Africa. You need to leave now.” Nkumbi and her colleagues were in the process of checking out of an Airbnb apartment managed by the attacker’s wife. They were in Amsterdam to attend the opening of Muholi’s exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum.
“I am angry because it’s not as if they were refusing to leave and because I know he would not have done that had [Nkumbi] been a white woman,” Muholi told Huffington Post South Africa. “[Nkumbi] was here to work. Her job was to write a feature about the exhibition once it had opened. I booked that Airbnb and had to make sure they were taken care of. This man put a bitter end to what started out as a great weekend. He could have killed [Nkumbi] and I don’t think he has even realized it yet.”
In a statement sent to Hyperallergic, Airbnb’s Director of Diversity and Belonging David King said:
Appalling and unconscionable behavior against members of our community runs counter to everything Airbnb stands for. Our CEO Brian Chesky and I are reaching out to the affected guests. We will take the strongest actions we can against such abhorrent conduct, including banning people for life from our platform and assisting law enforcement with their investigation and potential prosecution. Nobody should ever be treated like this and it will not be tolerated.
The online rental service has come under increased scrutiny for the racist behavior of its hosts. A Harvard Business School study found that Airbnb hosts were 16% less likely to rent to guests with names that sounded African American as opposed to guests with white-sounding names. In response, the company has sought to diversify its staff, hired former US Attorney General Eric Holder to develop anti-discrimination policies, and instituted new measures that penalize hosts who systematically turn down minority guests.
Muholi’s work, primarily portrait photography, deals specifically with issues of racism, sexism, and discrimination based on sexuality, particularly as they’re experienced by members of the LGBTQ community in South Africa. The bitter irony of suffering a violent and racist attack in a nation less commonly associated with such incidents than their home country was not lost on Muholi and Nkumbi.
“I come from South Africa, where racism is so fucked up, and you would expect that from South Africa because racism is visible,” Nkumbi told Roberson. “You come here, you get attacked like that! I didn’t expect it at all. I’m actually quite disappointed — part of me is disappointed, part of me is sad, part of me is angry. When will we wake up? People are people.”
The Latest
Bobby Wilson Combats Indigenous Stereotypes Through Humor
The artist-performer’s career undulates, ever so gracefully, across multiple mediums and registers of generational pain, healing laughter, and Indigenous joy.
Rare 19th-Century Silhouette Album’s Secrets Unlocked
Traveling portrait artist William Bache’s album depicts famous figures like Thomas Jefferson as well as people whose identity was previously unknown.
Nevada Museum of Art Presents Adaline Kent: The Click of Authenticity
For the first time in nearly 60 years, the innovative yet under-recognized artist is the subject of a retrospective exhibition. On view in Reno, Nevada.
Artists Show What They Can Do With a Google Phone’s Camera
Works by 20 photographers are now on view in Manhattan for the seventh season and 100th project coming out of the Google Creator Labs.
Met Museum Kicked Me Out for Praying to My Ancestral Gods
My danced prayer to looted Cambodian antiquities was too much for the New York museum.
The Public Theater in NYC Presents Plays for the Plague Year
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’s theatrical concert chronicles the 2020 lockdown and the hope and perseverance that emerged from it.
A Museum Guard’s Ode to the Healing Power of Art
In All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Bringley revisits the many ways that art meets life, and life art, and how death is often the bridge between them.
UK Extends Export Ban on Coveted “Portrait of Omai”
London’s National Portrait Gallery was given a few months to acquire the work, which depicts the first Polynesian visitor to the UK.
Mondays at Pratt Institute: Weekly Openings of Work by Graduating Artists
Free and open to the public, Pratt Shows celebrate the school’s graduating students. MFA and BFA work on view this spring in Brooklyn, New York.
The Sculptor Making Art With Loved Ones’ Ashes
Inspired by the three-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, Julian Stair’s exhibition honors the lives of eight people with cinerary jars.
Art Institute of Chicago Under Scrutiny Over Sacred Nepali Necklace
The 17th-century object remains on display at the Chicago museum despite Nepal’s calls for repatriation.
LSU School of Art Grants Highest MFA Stipends in the Southern US
With funded assistantships, full tuition waivers, and generous stipends, Louisiana State University helps students lay the groundwork for a successful lifelong art practice.
Art Problems: How Do I Get a Public Art Commission?
Want to leave a mark on your city or town, but don’t know where to start? Paddy Johnson has some tips.
Rose B. Simpson Embeds Ancestral Histories in Clay
She has taken clay and used it to recall its ancestral roots in Pueblo culture and address the present history of postcolonial recovery and ongoing trauma.