3 Brown Girls
Collaboration by 3 Brown Girls - using Poetry, Writing and Art to express their collective thoughts on GBV.
Acrylic on Canvas, by Sarvesha Moodley.
Haiku Poetry by Alyssa Jooste
GBV Memoir – by Alyssa Jooste
This was not an average bruise.
This bruise, spread from under her bra, down her flank and disappeared underneath the top of her pants. The colour was so intense, shades of raisin and wine hues, that it created a striking contrast against her smooth chocolate skin. It stupefied me as I imagined the brute force that would have to deliver an injury like that. Or was it multiple forces delivered in the same area? Her pain was evident in the slow way she gently slid her soft woolen jersey down to hide her fragility, while her downcast eyes raised in me an anger I had never experienced before. Could she really be embarrassed, disappointed even, to show me the details of her intimate relationship? Did she believe that I would judge her or maybe she anticipated the inevitable questioning that would position her at the root cause of this punishment? What I learned in those next few moments was that this was not the first, the second or the third beating but one of a myriad of beatings that almost always ended up with injuries. Some could be masked by make-up, some forced her to stay indoors, some caused collateral damage to one of their small children but all known to neighbours who chose to distance themselves from the affairs and sometimes screams of this woman.
This was not an average bruise.
This hurt represented a plethora of injustices and societal indifferences. It stripped a layer away from my eyes, transforming my level of awareness and stirring in me a feeling I had never known before. I wanted justice and redemption for this woman and her children. I wanted to right the wrongs of a man trusted to protect her and love her, yet whose love was limited by conditions that only he unconsciously agreed to. I wanted to talk her out of love and into reason and logic and present her with a few powerful lines that would create in her the "ah ha" moment she needed to walk away and put herself first.
As I observed her eyes, I noticed how my arrogant solution fell out of my mouth and landed onto the floor, hot and unwelcome. It suddenly dawned on me how I actually had no idea what I was talking about. My cushioned experience of relationships did not deem me an expert or counselor and this pompous rampage only seered more into an already frail woman, desperate for love and empathy.
This was not an average bruise.
Meet the creative collective - 3 Brown Girls
How did 3 brown girls come together to explore the intersectionality of their creative spirits?
Alyssa is a mother of two, a Breathwork and Mindfulness coach and the Co-owner of a Women's Wellness events company, Fitreat. She promotes overall holistic and mental wellbeing among South African women, incorporating several mindfulness techniques such as meditation, breathwork and Dutch-pour acrylic painting. She hopes to inspire women, especially mothers, to find their medium of choice that will bring them towards increased self awareness.
Fentse is a creative at heart; she is a jewellery designer and a creative entrepreneur at a company she owns called Marabou Essentials. She is also an avid reader and a creative story teller with an ability to paint a vivid picture with a string of words and as well as images. She promotes her love of books by sharing book reviews on social media in an engaging and humorous fashion! She has a particular interest in authors who have their roots on the African continent.
Sarvesha dabbles in acrylic painting, landscape photography, origami and fusion cooking. She is the co-owner of an Indian street food business called Gupchup, where she thorough enjoys sharing her cooking passion with other Foodies at various Cape Town food markets. She promotes the benefits of being multi-hyphenate (a person with multiple side-interests) and looks to inspire and educate others by sharing her creative escapades on social media.
These 3 women met at Sasol just as they left varsity, but were re-united almost a decade later. Alyssa recognised that they all had creative voices to leverage in order to speak up about their mutual outrage at the spate of Gender Based Violence incidents over the last year in particular.
We have collaborated to produce a short story, a collection of poems and a painting to inspire other women to band together and highlight the injustices South African women and children are facing. We have found our synergy, our vesica, and hope that others can too.