Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu was born on 11 November 1935 in a farm located outside of Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa, and belongs to the Southern Ndebele people.

She is known for translating and substituting the traditional surfaces for Ndebele mural art, adobe cow-dung wall, with canvas, and eventually, metal alloys.

She has a tendency to frame her pattern motifs.”[9] Mahlangu first gained international attention in 1989 at a French art exposition titled Magiciens de la terre (Magicians of the World).

[16] Ndebele designs were also reproduced in 1997 on the tails of British Airways planes[17] and more recently the same technique was used by the artist to paint on the new Fiat 500 on the occasion of the exhibition "Why Africa?"

Despite being an internationally recognized artist, Esther Mahlangu still presently lives in her village in close and constant contact with her culture.

Mahlangu follows a local tradition through which this particular type of painting technique is handed down in the family, communicated, learned and transmitted only by women (in the past).

To celebrate this event the women completely repaint the inside and the outside of their houses with a preparation of cow dung and natural pigments.

Despite continuing to use the same "artistic vocabulary" closely tied to her traditions, Mahlangu has applied the designs to various objects including canvas, sculpture, ceramics and automobiles.

Esther Mahlangu's 1991 BMW Artcar was on view at the British Museum as part of 'South Africa: the art of a nation', from 27 October 2016 - 27 February 2017.

The police started a manhunt to catch the suspect – purportedly a young man whose great-grandfather had lent Ms. Mahlangu's father some money in the 1920's - some one hundred years before.