This is South Africa

This is South Africa is a large flag in the South African colours. Hung upside down in accordance with the international communication protocol signalling distress, the flag is made from underwear and panties donated by rape survivors to Jenny Nijenhuis’s 2016 project, SA’s Dirty Laundry.

SA’s Dirty Laundry consisted of hanging 3600 pairs of donated underwear on washing lines across the streets of downtown Johannesburg, a commentary on love, power and the estimated 3600 rapes that take place in South Africa daily. Questioning the state of an un-healed nation 25 years after the end of apartheid, Nijenhuis’s flag is an incisive, disturbing reflection on the pain and anger that inform expressions of masculinity in South Africa - and its underbelly of sexual violence.

The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is considered amongst the highest in the world.

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