bringbackourhermanity-blog

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

Thank you all for vewing and lets keep our minds open in the comments box- next show will be as stated and with a bit of lively twist. Thank you to all the ladies that took part in this, salute I, your more than just your body nude and commodified.

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

"On Bended Knee" Strike me, please me, just never leave me, I've grown accustomed to what It is that you call love. Your nice-to-have, your a play-thing Entrance granted, on Bended Knee. "On Bended Knee" Strike me, please me, just never leave me I've grown accustomed to what It is that you call love. Your nice-to-have, your play-thing Entrance granted, on Bended Knee. "On Bended Knee" Strike me, please me, just never leave me I've grown accustomed to what It is that you call love. Your nice-to-have, your play-thing Entrance granted, on Bended Knee.

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

Online Exhibition happening RIGHT NOW! Follow an Afrakan girl's journey through different phases of life, struggle and hardship. The Bring Back Our Hermanity movement brings you the second instalment of a 3 series exhibition of nude photography. The aim here is to raise awareness through the naked body in order to dismantle the taboos that structural violence has put into place as a means of control and soft colonialism. TheNakedWoman TheStaringMan present the second instalment themed 'The Commodified Body'. Follow our journey and share your thoughts as we're about to go live on: Instagram: @afrakanprincess & @author_known Facebook: @Rita Kantu & @Afari Kofi Tumblr: @bringbackourhermanity Twitter: @RiRi_K_ Like, share, comment and repost. No longer shall women's bodies remain taboos! #bringbackourhermanity #LaFemmeNue #dismantlingtaboos #TheNakedWomban #TheStaringMan #FreeTheNipple

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

Sunday 20th Sept. IG: @afrakanprincess & @author_known | FB: Rita Kantu & Afari Kofi | Twitter: @RiRi_K_ | 6-8pm CAT #bringbackourhermanity #lafemmenue #dismantlingtaboos #freethenipple

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

'Holloways' Narrow entries of light and dark The Black and the white The clean and unclean The civilised and the uncivilised The sacred and profane The just and the unjust Allowing for the penetrative destruction Of brown bodies. Sunday 6pm #BringBackOurHermanity #LaFemmeNue #dismantlingtaboos #FreeTheNipple

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

'Reproductive Man-Droids' Zygote Tupperware A means to an end Flawed mechanical designs, void of status, Denied civility. Prone and vulnerable to The inevitability of struggle. Sunday @6pm. #bringbackourhermanity #lafemmenue #dismantlingtaboos #freethenipple

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

‘Justitia’

Chastised by society and left to hang like slaves to their bodies.

 Neither black nor white, always in shades of grey, with the weight of the world  balanced beneath her wooden sword and scale-yet, distorted in a way blind folded.

Mother Hathor says God sent me.

 *images seen at the first installation of this three part exhibition.

This particular image was refused to be displayed as it was said to be graphic.

have we not been complacent and blind to Mother Justice

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

The Silent Dance.

Oh Mermaid Madonna, it is I, Smaraghti, who comes to you in peace and in faith. Let rain fall upon us and wash away the impure from what is pure, and the profane from what is sacred. Forgive them for their wrongdoings, forgive us for our faithlessness. To each man his own mind; it is the sea that sends you to us - let rain fall.

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

The Body Contorted.

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

The Body Contorted.

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[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

OUR MISSION

Following the likes of Alfred Stieglitz, what we aimed to do here was not to make pictures but rather, we had a vision along with a first-hand experience of women's places and roles within African societies; and thus attempted to capture those moments in photographic form. Really, what our aim here is  to expose the female body not as a taboo reserved for closed doors and sexual favours but rather; to portray the brown female body as the pillar of life's meaning. To show the world that women's bodies are far more than just a commodity, or a source of desire and reproduction

 The exhibition titled 'Bring Back Our Hermanity' will be displayed in a series of three parts:

 1. The Silenced & Contorted Body (June 4th 2015- Event was great- print outs looks amazing, First Thursdays Braamfontein was magic)

2. The Commodified Body (ONLINE 20th September)

3. The Body Afrakan (Old Womens Prison, Constitution Hill, South Africa, November 21st)

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

OUR AIM

What the photographers and Rita tried to do was to recreate the brown, female body as we, or people in general have experienced it. Women all over the world have at least once in their lifetime experienced a threatening situation involving the opposite sex that might have left her feeling some type of way. What we aimed to do was to ambiguously recreate instances of hardship, injustice and inequality that women face every day. Through dance, movement, poetry, and rhythm; the models' bodies encapsulated moments of vulnerability, permeability, transparency; the contorted and distorted, the subordinate and the inferior. As the women arise from the ashes of violence, from the denial of self-love and acceptance; she is reborn into a new day. a new self. A new beginning follows her as she learns to embrace her body as a pillar of strength; embodying both male and female characteristics. She takes back her own humanity. She holds on strongly to her-manity, demanding it, owning it, living through it in all her essence. No longer does society’s norm apply to her. No longer does she have to kneel to the iron fist of patriarchal subordination. She embraces her body in all her curvatures - and she loves what she sees.

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About

Bring Back Our Hermanity (BBOH) is a nude photographic narrative that was construed upon news of the mass abductions and massacres of young girls in Nigeria by the terrorist group 'Boko Haram'. It later became a reflection of the mundane injustices against all women and most specifically women of colour. Gang rapes and enslaved prostitution in the south of India; the violation of schoolgirls by teachers in South African schools; the commodification of female bodies for financial profit. The highly held perception by African men that women are tangible objects, independent of autonomous status. Women too, whether in counter-response, value themselves lesser than they should. And in turn, thwy value other women in a similar or lesser fashion. The above thus create a breeding ground for discontent, dissemination and contamination of the mind and the communal bond between women and their significant others. Thus allowing for a niche of distorted and incongruent perceptions of reality; of what women should look like; how women should speak; what women should wear.

   This photographic novel follows six women from different parts of South  Africa on a path towards the freedom of getting to know and further accept thyself as she was made. Of getting to experience the female body as not merely an objective and biological means to an end but as a living sculpture of the essence of life, love, strength, hope and beauty.

 

[bringbackourhermanity-blog]

INTRODUCTION

This story was born out of the ashes of violence. Spurred on by rage towards the violation of women. In the news. On the radio. In Nigeria and on social networks. This story grew out of the backbone of betrayal, hate, temptation. How could they? Murder on the news. Rape on shuttle busses. Kidnappings in schools. The foreign exchange of private parts. How could they lack humanity? This story was born out of the spoils of war. Wars brought upon women and women's bodies. Wars against abuse, against violation, against exploitation.

 The female body has been twisted, contorted, distorted - shaped into subjective realities, independent of all others. The female body has been silenced, muzzled, chained, captured - made void, stateless; used purely as a means to an end. Bountiful brown bodies bought and sold, traded and exchanged, used and misused. Made valueless yet given financial value.  

 From hate - as time and acceptance allowed - out grew, love. Love for Thine Divine Self. Love for Our Divine Selves. Too often we fail to stop, take a moment and truly apprecilove our bodies. Men, women, children alike. We fail to acknowledge our Divine selves as Sheila warriors, as royalty, as Empresses - Afrakan Gods. We fail to love our bodies, the way they were given to us. But with time, we too, learn to love ourselves again.  

 From ashes to ashes this story was born, everything intertwined. And so it came to pass that, the void, female, brown body grew into the strong and fearless defender of Hermanity. Embracing every curvature of her divine self and their selves. Embodying love, exuding strength and sharing hope.  

 It is to this that we say, bring back our hermanity!