Bambanani Women’s Group

Collective

Bambanani Women’s Group is a collective that was formed in 2002 in Cape Town in South Africa. Its name comes from the xhosa word for ‘staying together, unifying’. This mutual support group, made up of thirteen women and one man, was formed around an anti-retroviral programme overseen by Médécins sans frontiers, and developed a practice of ‘Body Maps’ that are documented in the book Longlife: Positive HIV Stories (Double Storey, 2004). The artist and activist Jane Solomon accompanied the group for the workshops in which they created the Body Maps.