Context (References)
Jonathan Morgan & Bambanani Women's Group (2003).Longlife: Positive HIV Stories. Cape Town: DoubleStorey Press.
Event Date 2003
Author: rachel hand

Context (Field collection)
Customised print commissioned by MAA from Thozama Ndevu's original acrylic painting, 2003.

The Bambanani Women’s Group formed in 2002 to participate in the creation of memory books and boxes aimed to help people come to terms with their diagnosis, to disclose their HIV - status to their families and children and to begin the planning for the future. The group went on to work on the Longlife Project which created 'body maps', life-size outlines of the artists' bodies filled with colourful depictions of the effects of the HIV virus on their life

The Longlife Project recorded the life stories of the women who were participating in a Medésins Sans Frontières (MSF) pilot antiretroviral programme and raised awareness and campaigned for antiretroviral treatment to be made available in the South African public healthcare sector. The Longlife Project marked a shift from ‘preparing for death’ with the creation of memory boxes to ‘fighting for life’ as antiretroviral therapy was made available in public clinics and hospitals in late 2003.

The body maps published in the book Longlife: Positive HIV Stories together with interviews of people working on the project and limited edition fine art prints of the original body maps were exhibited locally and internationally at conferences, fundraising events and in art galleries.

After the Longlife Project the Bambanani Women’s group went on to be trained as field researchers and worked on surveys conducted by the Centre for Social Science Research at University of Cape Town. Some members of the group have continued to do Memory Book and Body Map workshops and presentations for organisations such as VSO, Tateni Home Based Care, Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières and medical students at the University of Cape Town.


Event Date 2003
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
Jonathan Morgan & Bambanani Women's Group (2003).Longlife: Positive HIV Stories. Cape Town: DoubleStorey Press.
Event Date 2003
Author: rachel hand

Description (CMS Description)
Body Map of Thozama Ndevu.‘Thozama Ndev8/45’ written in pencil at base of frame
Event Date 16/12/2009
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Thozama Ndevu describes her body map, 'There is no more friendship between my stepfather and me. He wrote a letter to my teachers at school. It said I must leave school because he is not going to pay for my school fees because I have got a boyfriend now. I asked my boyfriend for money. He gave me money because he was working.

One day I went to my boyfriend to sleep with him and my stepfather hit me and stabbed me with a screwdriver. He stabbed me here on my left wrist you can see on my body map. One night he came to my bed and said, "Come here I want to make you strong."

My boyfriend said I could stay with him. He was working in security. There was no other place for me to go. Before a long time I had a fight with him because he had twelve girlfriends. Always changing, changing, changing. Every time I see him with another girl.

After I left him, I met the one I am married to now. I was 20.

When I was pregnant I found out I am HIV positive. I knew all about HIV a long time, but I didn't think here in South Africa there would be people who have HIV. I thought people from overseas would have it.

When I left the clinic I didn't tell anyone. No one, and no one since then. No one knows. Only I know, and the counsellor, and all of you. I'm not happy. I would like to tell someone but I go to tell and then I'm afraid to. I haven't told my mother but I'm thinking about telling her. I tried to tell my husband but he said, "If you go, when you come back you mustn't tell me, because I can't sleep with someone who is positive.

I think I got the virus before my husband met me because my first boyfriend is very thin now. And my husband, he refuses to use a condom. This is very hard for me to know I am giving him the virus. So that is the reason I cannot have my photo. ' Details taken from http://www.memorybox.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=45. Accessed 5/2/2013
Event Date 16/12/2009
Author: maa

Context (Display)
Exhibited in Assembling Bodies: Art Science & Imagination, MAA, March 2009- November 2010, with the following details, 'I didn't think here in South Africa there would be people who have HIV. I thought people from overseas would have it; when the counselor told me I was HIV positive, I thought she was making a mistake- I would like to tell someone but I go to tell and then I'm afraid to. No one knows... (Thozama 2003).'
Event Date 22/2/2012
Author: Rachel Hand

Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2025.6189 | Assessment Only
Event Date 30/4/2025
Author: Stephanie De Roemer

Description (Physical description)
Digital print from a body map painting by Thozama Ndevu, 2003, of the outline of a body with writing around it, dark blue background. Printed on canvas, stretched and framed.
Event Date 30/4/2025
Author: Rachel Hand