The Man Who Sang and the Woman Who Kept Silent

This is the original dress that was produced along with the two oil paintings. On it, a poem by Judith Mason for Phila Ndwandwe is inscribed with white paint. The dress was initially displayed in an open tube hanging from the roof. It started disintegrating due to exposure to the elements, so a custom base and glass casing was produced.

Sister,
a plastic bag may not be the whole armour of God,
but you were wrestling with flesh and blood,
and against powers,
against the rulers of darkness,
against spiritual wickedness in sordid places.
Your weapons were your silence and a piece of rubbish.
Finding that bag and wearing it
until you were disinterred is such a frugal,
common-sensical, house-wifely thing to do,
an ordinary act…
At some level you shamed your capturers,
and they did not compound their abuse of you
by stripping you a second time.
Yet they killed you.
We only know your story because a sniggering man
remembered how brave you were.
Memorials to your courage are everywhere;
they blow about in the streets
and drift on the tide
and cling to thorn bushes.
This dress is made from some of them.
Hamba kahle.
Umkhonto.