Nomonde Kundayi

Nomonde Khundayi was a South African artist and activist, and a founding member of the Bambanani Women’s Group, a Cape Town–based collective of people living with HIV/AIDS. Born in Constantia in 1980, she grew up in Khayelitsha after her mother left her job as a domestic worker. In 2002, after learning of her HIV-positive status, Khundayi joined the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) pilot antiretroviral programme in Khayelitsha.

Through her participation in the Long Life Project (2002–2003), facilitated by Jonathan Morgan, Kylie Thomas, and art instructor Jane Solomon, she became one of the first artists to create a Body Map, a life-sized self-portrait painted with words, symbols, and imagery that documented her personal experience of living with HIV. Her work, along with that of her peers, became internationally recognised as both a powerful artistic expression and a form of activist testimony.

The Body Maps contributed to shifting South Africa’s public discourse on HIV/AIDS from stigma and silence to treatment access and human rights, coinciding with the Constitutional Court’s 2002 ruling in favour of the Treatment Action Campaign. Limited edition print sets of the Body Maps, including Khundayi’s, were later exhibited worldwide and acquired by major collections such as the Constitutional Court Art Collection (2004).

Khundayi passed away unexpectedly in May 2011, leaving behind two sons. Her life and art continue to embody the resilience and courage of the Bambanani Women’s Group, whose work helped transform the cultural memory of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa.