The printmaker and painter Gavin Jantjes has often used his works to comment on the politics of his native South Africa and to address issues of cultural identity, lost histories and experiences of shared humanity. This screenprint was commissioned in 1988 by John Phillips, who ran The Paddington Printshop, for a portfolio celebrating the multicultural aspects of Carnival in London. It reproduces the image of a larger painting, but here Jantjes has used handmade Indian Khadi paper and several overprintings of different blues to create an uneven texture which gives the print a heightened physical quality. The image was one of a series called Zulu (the Sky above your head); the title of which comes from the English translation of the word Zulu, which becomes “the space above your head” or “the heavens”. The image recalls the Khoi San peoples’ myth about the creation of the Milky Way in which a young girl reaches into the fire and throws burning embers into the sky. The coals form the stars and the white ashes become the Milky Way.

In Jantjes’ image, three figures are outlined in the style of Khoi San rock art against the star strewn sky. Cosmological themes appealed to Jantjes as, unlike the earthly world which is subject to division along geographical, racial and political lines, "The heavens are the most neutral space -- no nations lay claim to the heavens. They are undefined ... and are accessible to every human being." (Jantjes, 1996)