A Living Tribute
For the women who came before us, whose bodies built the medicine we have today, and whose voices were not always honoured. This page remembers them.
c. 1789 – 1815 · Eastern Cape, South Africa
A Khoikhoi woman taken from South Africa in 1810 and exhibited across Europe as a public spectacle. She died in Paris in 1815, aged 26. Her body remained on display in France until 1974. Nelson Mandela formally requested her return in 1994. On 9 August 2002, National Women's Day, she was finally buried near her birthplace. She came home. She belongs to all of us.
Montgomery, Alabama · 1840s
Three enslaved Black women whose names we know. Between 1845 and 1849 they were subjected to experimental surgery, Anarcha underwent at least 30 operations without anaesthesia, as the foundation of modern gynaecology was built on their suffering. In 2021, a 15-foot monument was erected in their honour. Their names are spoken now.
African women's bodies have been sites of medical research, colonial experimentation, and systemic neglect across centuries and across the continent. The specific stories are still being uncovered. As we find them, we will add them here. If you know a story that belongs on this page, we want to hear it.
The Living Wall
Stories women have shared with us. Short, true, and kept anonymous.
“For three years I thought I was losing my mind. My doctor said I was stressed. Nobody said menopause.”
Thandi, 52
Soweto · isiZulu
“Ek het vyf jaar simptome gehad en nie geweet nie. Ek was nie besig om gek te word nie, my hormoon het verander.”
Mariette, 49
Stellenbosch · Afrikaans
“My mother never spoke about this. Her mother never spoke about it. I want my daughter to have a different experience.”
Nomsa, 55
Durban · isiZulu
Sarah Baartman. Anarcha. Betsey. Lucy. And every woman whose name was never written down.
Their bodies carried the burden of a science that did not yet know how to treat them as human. Mandi is built in their honour. This page will keep growing, because there are more names to find, and more women to hear.
Share a story with Mandi →info@joinmandi.com
“This platform was born from my own story, years of symptoms that nobody connected to my hormones. Once you know better, you can do better. And you can help others do the same.”
Hermi King
Founder · MrsKing Productions