keiskamma guernica

By 2009, management of people living with HIV/AIDS in the vicinity of Hamburg had deteriorated because the Keiskamma Health Programme was no longer permitted to supply antiretroviral (ARV) medication to their patients. New legislation dictated that ARV drugs could be accessed only through government channels. Patients cared for by the health services of the Keiskamma Trust were therefore forced to rely on local government healthcare providers.

No allowance was made for the poor social infrastructure of rural areas, which made access to transport and health amenities very difficult for people in the Hamburg community. This negatively impacted adherence to HIV/AIDS treatment regimes. While in theory the government treatment programme was functioning, the reality on the ground was a distressing failure of adequate healthcare provision. When the sick were admitted to hospital they often experienced harsh, incompetent and careless treatment, and several members of the community died as a result of negligence.

As a medical doctor and humanitarian who had introduced ARVs into the community and witnessed their life-changing impact, Hofmeyr was devastated to see this needless suffering. She introduced the Keiskamma artists to Picasso’s Guernica (1937), a painting that cries out against the injustices and meaningless suffering of war. Picasso’s work is a response to the horrific bombing of the small market town of Guernica in Spain by German forces co-operating with fascist Spanish leader Francisco Franco. The Keiskamma Guernica, a searing expression of sorrow and rage, depicts the similarly devastating impact of of HIV/AIDS on the Hamburg community, its distinctively African frame of reference evident in the incorporation of traditional Xhosa symbols like the dying cow. Art historians refer to Picasso’s ‘sick sun’ in the Guernica. For the Keiskamma artists, a simple candle that barely illuminates its surrounds represents a similar depth of despair. The profound expressions of grief in the drawings that form part of the background of the piece vividly recall the iconography of the weeping women in Picasso’s painting, while Hofmeyr herself is shown as a figure in white overwhelmed by and fleeing seemingly endless suffering.

Poignantly, the sections of blanket stitched into the piece are taken from the blankets under which members of the community had suffered and died, a symbol of the desperation and grief of a community in extremis. Yet the creative process of acknowledging and honouring those who had died in the HIV/AIDS pandemic, brought about some sense of community catharsis and healing. The making of the piece allowed those who had lost loved ones a space not only to mourn but also to express their anger at the social injustices that had contributed to the high death toll in the Hamburg region and across the country. This act of catharsis brought about a renewed sense of pride and dignity in the Hamburg community, as well as a determination to bring about change.