T-shirts, Testimony, and Truth: Memories of Violence made Visible

Abstract

In the township of Crossroads, South Africa, a group of Xhosa women artists have created an extraordinary space of female agency and empowerment. This women's group, called the Philani Printing Project, has formed a place where art and feminist politics intersect with political action. This paper considers a series of five t-shirts that Philani artists created to testify to their individual experiences with violence. Worn in the tradition of the protest t-shirts that were donned by anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s, these shirts bear slogans that call upon other people to join alongside the women and speak out on issues such as gender equity, violence against women, and other forms of women's rights. In presenting these works, this article aims to frame Philani artists as political actors who strive to make visible the conditions of their lives by focusing their artistic efforts on the exploitation and survival of Black South African women despite apartheid policies that discriminated against them, and a current environment which in many ways continues to be hostile towards the emancipation of women.