Context (Field collection)
Customised print commissioned by MAA from Nomawethu'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: Double Storey Press, p. 37
Event Date 2003
Author: rachel hand

Context (Production / use)
'In my left eye I have a birth mark and I just like it. It is part of me.
That scar on my head . I was 17 and I was walking in the H section. There was R350 hidden in my bra. On the way I met three guys and they told me I must give them 50 cents. The first one he started to klap me in the face with his hand, the second one he draw a knife and he stab on top of my eye . I told myself I'm not going to give the money. It's better if I die than just give it. In my bra I also keep a knife and I took it and stabbed . All three robbers ran away but the community found the one I stabbed. It was easy to find him. They just followed his blood and they beat him very terrible.
You see there are red flames there by my heart. It was 1998 in June when I found out that my sister had killed herself . She drank some paraffin spirits and threw a match and caught alight. Then she died in Jooste hospital. Her mouth was gone and her breasts. She did try talk to me and say you must look after my child. Then she died. It was because her husband was with another woman. He died last year of this HIV illness.
On my painting I have written, "I want to have a cure for HIV" and "Try to be faithfully" of course "HIV is a killer".
I'm standing with my hands up and my feet on the snake . In my opinion the virus look like a snake . You can't see it and it's moving in the secret ways and dark ways. Inkanyamba , a big snake that lives in the water, a destroyer like a hurricane that destroys everything on the earth and makes houses and trees fall down and kills people. But you see I am standing on the snake . With ARVs I destroy this virus too.'
Details taken from http://www.memorybox.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=34. Accessed 5/2/213
Event Date 2003
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Print of the original acrylic body map by Nomawethu, 2003. The life-size outlines of the artist's body is filled with colourful depictions of the effects of the HIV virus on her life
Event Date 16/12/2009
Author: maa

Context (Display)
'Exhibited: On display in the MAA exhibition Assembling Bodies; Art, Science & Imagination, Andrews Gallery, March 7- end November 2010.
Event Date 7/3/2010
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
In January 2007, Nomawethu was murdered by her boyfriend. See Kylie Thomas 10 Dece 2007. The Murder of Nomawethu Ngalimani. Available https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/the_murder_of_nomawethu_ngalimani/ (Accessed 3/8/2021)
Event Date 3/8/2021
Author: rachel hand

Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2025.6186 | Assessment Only
Event Date 30/4/2025
Author: Stephanie De Roemer