N Pandor: Exhibition opening in commemoration of 16 June 1976 student
uprising

THROUGH THE CAMERA'S EYE

19 July 2006

Mr Peter Magubane,
MC Mr Christopher Till,
Guests,

It is an honour for me to open this exhibition at the Apartheid Museum
marking the thirtieth anniversary of the 1976 student uprising. It is
appropriate that this exhibition is housed in the Apartheid Museum where the
complexity of the apartheid state in South Africa in the twentieth century is
so vividly and graphically portrayed.

This exhibition highlights the struggles of our youth, three decades ago,
when they rose up against the oppressive weight of apartheid.

Apartheid was a system that promoted degradation and subservience for the
black majority. It was a system that attempted deliberately to create an
education system that was unequal and discriminatory. It was a system that bred
negative education practices and created the difficult legacy we still confront
today.

The student uprising, starting in Soweto and then erupting throughout the
country, was one of the major turning points in the struggle for freedom and
democracy in South Africa.

Peter Magubane’s images bring back to life the moments of the days of 1976,
capturing the raw courage of those learners who rallied around the call to
resist oppression. The images vividly capture the brutality of the apartheid
state – the tear gassing, the shootings, and the killings. This exhibition
displays much of the iconic imagery that has formed the basis of the history of
the struggles of the youth of 1976.

But the images also serve to remind us that the events of 1976 and beyond
were about individuals – often nameless – but recorded forever in these images
captured by a truly dedicated and remarkable South African.

I pay tribute to Mr Peter Magubane who so courageously put himself into
incredible danger to record for posterity the revolt of our youth in
Soweto.

What is truly remarkable is that Mr Magubane had previously faced the wrath
and brutality of the apartheid state. In 1969 he was tortured, detained for 586
days in solitary confinement, and then faced banning for five years. In March
of 1971 he was arrested again, spent 98 days in solitary confinement, and was
then jailed for six months.

And yet when the Soweto uprisings occurred, he was back on the streets. Of
that remarkable role in showing the world what was happening in South Africa he
simply says: “I think that I was there as a messenger and as a messenger, I did
my job”.

His photographs have documented the struggle for liberation in South Africa.
He has published a dozen books of photography, and given innumerable
exhibitions. His photographs of Nelson Mandela being taken to the treason trial
in 1956, of the 69 coffins of the victims of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960,
of the 1976 uprising and beyond, are our vivid recordings of South Africa’s
struggle for freedom.

Peter Magubane has forged an impressive career that spans over half a
century and he has deservedly received numerous prestigious international
accolades for his contribution to the world of photography.

This exhibition encapsulates around Peter Magubane’s gift to the South
African people. Without these images and those like them, it would be difficult
for South Africans, particularly those for whom Soweto and other townships were
like a foreign country – somewhere out there - to begin to understand the daily
lives of oppression of the majority of South Africans.

Peter Magubane says the following about his contact with young protestors in
1976. These young people tried to stop him from taking photographs:

“Listen let me tell you something: a struggle without documentation is no
struggle at all. You have to rethink, if you get mowed down by the police and
there is no documentation, no one, your parents wouldn’t know and the world
wouldn’t know. I beg you, let us all in … Let us document your struggle…..”

Again Peter Magubane sums up his legacy:

“I work with a camera, I don’t work with a pen. I believe in documenting.
You know, not so many people are able to document their own histories. It is
important that you document your own history if you can.”

Our young people are often accused of ignoring the past, rejecting the pain
of confronting the brutality of the South African past as they enjoy the fruits
of our democracy.

The Department has focused on the need to revive the interest among our
youth in our history. We have ensured that South African history is at the
centre of our new curriculum. We are ensuring that children do learn about the
past.

We are encouraging young people to begin to write their own histories, for
example, through the Nkosi Albert Luthuli Young Historians’ Competition that
started last year.

We welcome the increasing number of books written by South Africans that
strive to capture the histories of ordinary people in South Africa, whether as
formal social histories or as fiction. The commemoration of the thirtieth
anniversary of the youth uprisings has stimulated a great interest in capturing
the memories of many of those who lived through those days – the teachers,
individual policemen, the families left behind and the youth themselves.

This momentum should not be lost. We do see a revival of public interest in
our past. Our learners should be encouraged to investigate and write about the
histories of their schools, past teachers and learners. They should learn about
when and how their schools were started. They should begin to interrogate
whether their schools have risen to meet the challenges of our new
democracy.

I am worried that the histories of many of the schools that were centres of
excellence before and during the early years of apartheid will be lost. They
remain shining examples to the schools, principals, teachers and learners of
today of how, in the midst of deep adversity, they achieved academic and all
round excellence. Learners came out of those schools well equipped with
admirable qualities and skills to take on the challenges of the apartheid
state.

It is also by interrogating those histories that our learners and teachers
will begin to see ways of how to take up the challenges of today. I would like
to see that those schools are given the true recognition that they deserve.

I congratulate the Apartheid Museum for mounting this remarkable
photographic exhibition of one of the major turning points in the history of
our struggle for democracy.

And we salute you, Peter Magubane for a lifetime of commitment in telling
the history of our struggle through the camera’s eye and in enriching our
understanding of the past through your work.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Education
19 July 2006