The MiG-21 Project, on display at The Museum of Flight through January 26, 2026, features a full-sized Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 aircraft covered tip to tail, inside and out, with tens of millions of glass beads. South African artist Ralph Ziman is the mind behind the project; he conceived of it and designed the intricate patterns that adorn the plane. But the actual beading was done by a team of artisans from across South Africa and Zimbabwe.
“There is no Africa without beads,” says Thenjiwe Pretty Nkogatsi, one of the project’s artisans and a long-time collaborator with Ziman. “It connects. If you go deep with Africa, you find it’s the one thing. So that’s why you see it all over.”
Beads have been part of life in southern Africa since time immemorial. While the presence of beads is widespread, their purpose and the style in which they were used differs among the many diverse tribal traditions in the region. For centuries, people wove shells, bits of animal hide and other natural materials into their hair or used them to create beaded clothing and accessories. Strengthened trade networks brought colored glass beads to the area, which gave the craftspeople new palettes to draw upon.
The ‘Africanness’ of beading took on new meaning for indigenous Africans in the era of colonialism. What was already integrated into their culture also became a symbol of defiance and an audacious assertion of identity.
Thenjiwe Pretty Nkogatsi learned beading from her mother and grandmother when she was eleven years old. She is Ndebele, where the art of beadwork is stewarded by women. She remembers her mother selling beadwork on the floor rather than off a table to make it easier to flee if the police approached. During Apartheid, the white South African government heavily regulated Black business to preserve a state of poverty for indigenous Africans, only issuing a handful of permits and harshly punishing those who broke the rules. Her mother was not one of the lucky few to secure a permit.
Thenjiwe Pretty Nkogatsi, image credit Ralph Ziman
Color has long been part of both culture and resistance for the Ndebele people. In addition to the intricate beadwork used to adorn hair and clothing, the Ndebele have been painting similarly vibrant patterns on their houses for centuries. As Ndebele communities were broken apart by the Boers, the region’s Dutch colonizers, and pressed into effective slavery, the brilliant, symmetrical shapes painted onto the walls of their houses became a signifier of solidarity in a time of oppression. These colorful displays could not be missed by anyone passing by and were a powerful visual reminder of the Ndebele’s presence in the area.
Nkogatsi founded and leads Annointed Hands, a collective of Ndebele women dedicated to the skill of beadwork. In addition to The MiG-21 Project, she has made beadwork for The Casspir Project, Ziman’s earlier effort to cover a Casspir police vehicle with beads. She has also been commissioned by Nike and South African fashion designer David Tlale while still maintaining a day-to-day presence selling beaded work to the public in stores and street markets.
Other artisans who worked on The MiG-21 Project followed different routes to the artform. Kennedy Mwashusha was born in Zimbabwe, moving to South Africa in the late 1980s while Apartheid was in its violent final stages. He struggled to find work, until he saw men fashioning sculptures out of a combination of wire and beads.
Kennedy Mwashusha, image credit Ralph Ziman
“To me, it was like an avenue whereby I had to survive,” he recalls. “I decided, if they can do it, why can’t I do it? And then I joined in.”
Bowasi “Boas” Manzvenga got into it for the cars—the tiny model cars made from beads and wire he made and played with when he was a kid in Zimbabwe.
“We’ve been doing this when we were very young,” he says. “So when I saw the guys doing the same thing, just doing the frames of the animals and different frames of the art, then I said to myself, I think I can venture into it.”
Wire-and-bead creations are popular children’s toys in South Africa and are also sold to tourists eager to take a piece of their travels home with them. The work begins by bending wire into a 3D frame outlining a shape. Animals and cars are common subjects. Then, strings of beads are woven between the wires to create the finished piece.
Bowasi “Boas” Manzvenga, image credit Ralph Ziman
While the dolls may be small, the artists making them have pushed the boundaries of the form, creating wire-and-bead zebras that are waist high and just as long, or giraffes whose necks tower seven or eight feet in the air.
Of her own work, Nkogatsi says, “I don’t like my dolls to look real. I like them to look like they come from space!”
When South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010, Manzvenga’s collective prepared for the tourist onslaught by crafting wire-and-bead soccer balls and World Cup trophies. But beadwork is more than a souvenir. Manzvenga has created bead sculptures as public art, including an afro pick and a giant pair of Converse shoes that welcome shoppers to the Fashion Kapitol mall in Johannesburg.
Even though a fighter jet is much larger than a soccer ball or a looming giraffe, The MiG-21 Project used the same fundamental techniques. The jet itself was located with Ziman’s LA-based team, who created patterns and wire frames that conformed with the airplane’s angles and curves. These outlines were shipped to Africa to be covered by the artisans, then sent back to be affixed to the plane. The process was highly collaborative despite the logistical challenges posed by both the geographic spread of the team and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The MiG-21 Project at The Museum of Flight
The final product is a stunning explosion of shape and color that transforms an airplane built for war into an opportunity for healing. And that is the hope Ziman has for The MiG-21 Project: giving people affected by war and violence a chance at catharsis.
Nkogatsi likes it that way. “I used to tell myself, ‘I want to be a doctor,’” she says. “But I found out that even right now I am doing this. Although it’s not medical, but I’m healing people.”
The MiG-21 Project will be on display at The Museum of Flight through January 26, 2026.
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