Esther Mahlangu (Middeleburg, South Africa, 1935) is an artist whose works are rooted in the traditional mural painting of the Ndebele people of South Africa, of which she is native. Unlike many other tribes in South Africa, the Ndebele have managed to preserve their centuries-old ancestral traditions. Their artistic heritage is passed down from mother to daughter: when a young woman reaches puberty, she withdraws from male society for three months and is taught the ceremonial patterns of the work.

Mothers and grandmothers introduce young women to the technique and stylistic codes of domestic mural decoration as part of initiation rites. They are the ones who inherit the art of making pigments, preparing the wall for painting, and composing original decorations inspired by traditional geometric figures, which serve as testimony to the important events of the private and collective life of its inhabitants. In addition to having a decorative purpose, the murals have been a means of cultural and symbolic resistance against the permanent colonization of their territory, an affirmation of identity against a history of continuous extermination: the presence of Boer farmers, the expansion of the British Empire, and the policies of the apartheid regime.

Esther Mahlangu, besides being an important advocate of this tradition, is the first Ndebele artist to transpose mural paintings onto canvases and bring the conventions of artwork to a broader realm. She draws freehand, without measuring first, using bright and high-contrast vinyl paints that give extraordinary vigor to her murals. While at first glance they are purely abstract, her compositions are based on a system of highly inventive and meaningful signs and symbols.