INYEMBEZI ZENDODA

INYEMBEZI ZENDODA (Tears of a Man) introduces us to artist Lwanda Dlamini, who was attacked in the township of Philippi and left for dead. Having spent three weeks in a coma at Groote Schuur Hospital, where he had to breathe through a tracheostomy tube that left a large scar, Lwanda is obviously traumatised, but unable to talk to his mother or his sisters about it, and his canvases are one of the only spaces in which he can express his pain and come to terms with what happened to him. He talks about how painting has been his therapy, a way to learn about himself and his surroundings, as well as a medium through which to forgive himself and to forgive the world. Powerfully expressive, the paintings add a wordless layer of dialogue to this carefully considered meditation on male pain and the ways in which men, particularly in South Africa, are expected to keep their suffering to themselves.