Ntombephi Ntobela, also called Induna as a sign of respect for her influence, received a traditional education and spent her youth in a rural environment in Eastern Cape. From an early age she learnt the art of beading from her grandmother, according to the Mpondo tradition. She began to explore this art first as an income supplement and gained mastery of it. This practice gave her a remarkable strength, great determination and financial independence.
Today, Induna still lives in her native South Africa, with her husband and maintains a strong bond with her cultural heritage.

In her first creations, the artist incorporated elements passed from generation to generation, notably featuring dominant colours such as blue and white, with touches of red. This choice refers to her mother’s Ibhayi, the Sangoma healers’ ritual shawl in the Xhosa society. Traditional Healers are often misunderstood and misrepresented. Induna considers that water plays an important role in her life. She illustrates the role of water and nature by using he to colours to depict plants and herbs. For her everything is made of water is the source of life itself. Bit by bit, Iduna opened herself to a new range of colours.
Induna’s ndwangos, or beaded fabrics, are extraordinary artworks inspired by her personal history and experience. In The Ubuhle Tree (2023), the artist plays with drawing and motifs to represent trees in a light and playful way. It evokes Ubuhle history. In My Sea, My Sister, My Tears (2011) she depicts a rough sea off South Africa’s Wild Coast, a way to represent the Earth and her own inner storm after the loss of her two sisters.
Since 1998, Induna worked with Beverley Gibson, known as Bev, to develop Ubuhle: Beautiful Beads. Together, they travelled the world giving lectures and giving workshop to introduce countries to Ubuhle. A part Ubuhle Beads activities is to teach beading and help artists overcome the obstacles to accessing the national and international art and craft scenes. Iduna teaches women the art of beading so that they may use these skills to gain financial independence. Ubuhle believes you are born an artist.

The exhibition Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence was commissioned by Washington’s Smithsonian Museum in 2013, and subsequently toured numerous institutions around the globe. It highlighted the importance of the Ndwango, as a contemporary art form by artists from Africa and of Ubuhle’s work to create a platform for these artists. Works were displayed by artists trained by Induna in Ubuhle Beads Nonhlakanipho Mndiythata (b. 1972), Thando Ntobela (b. 1986) and Zandile Ntobela (b. 1979). The 2020 exhibition Ubuhle and Astrid Dahl. mother earth at Bonne Espérance Gallery in Paris showed a selection of works for the first time in France, and highlighted the expertise of the women from the Ubuhle Beads through their spectacular paintings of embroidered pearls. Ubuhle’s work represents a major turning point in the art of South African beading, highlighting the beauty and ethics of Ubuhle internationally.
Ntombephi Ntobela’s has been recognized in the United States as one of the most influential contemporary artists from Africa. Her artwork features in various Museums and has been included in their permanent contemporary collections.