Who would have thought anyone could make mageu cool? If you're a little confused, mageu is a filling maize-based traditional drink that, while popular, would rarely have been thought of as fashionable.
All of that changed in August when Number 1 Mageu announced the winners of a competition they were running to redesign their packaging.
Cue Pule Mathonsi. While the Durban-based graphic designer did not win the competition, the Instagram hullabaloo leading up to his narrow loss was enough to intensify the already brightening spotlight on his work.
"Look, it was disappointing to lose but I am just glad to be able to get my work out there. I'm always looking for platforms to push my work and showcase my culture and traditions," says Mathonsi.
Hailing from Sotho and Zulu parentage, Mathonsi's work has a strongly South African feel to it, drawing a lot from his own Zulu heritage while still anchoring itself in the present.
"I am a very traditional person and also young, so I'm always looking for avenues where I can show young people that you can be traditional and cool," he says.
The traditional and the modern mesh beautifully on his Instagram page, which serves as a digital art gallery for him to showcase his work. Some of his more striking pieces depict images of various celebrities, like Tupac, Rihanna and Serena Williams, decked out in Zulu attire. He has a taste for portraying black women in cultural clothing.
"Most of my work is inspired by African women. I feel that South African black women are not celebrated enough, I mean it is getting there but at the moment it isn't enough."
When he isn't designing images of people dressed as Zulu kings and queens, Mathonsi squeezes various popular brands into traditional attire. His most recent stab at this was a PlayStation controller which has undergone a wardrobe change and donned South African print elements instead of its usual matte black.
What the future holds for Mathonsi is about as clear as a full glass of Mageu, but his growing online presence suggests good things. More importantly, it is just refreshing to see this kind of aesthetic executed in a manner that actually feels authentic and not like a group of consultants just pitched "Afro-futurism" to a group of pleasantly confused marketing folk...