A Tale Of Two Images: What Has South Africa Learned In 50 Years?

The world is ablaze.

Last week someone sent me a meme of a fictional 2020 calendar, January to December in review. It has all the months in images, starting with fires in Australia, plagues of locusts in Africa in February, pandemic through to May, then riots everywhere in June - followed by images of alien invasions in July, Yellowstone Park erupting in August, zombies, spiders and then finally, to put us out of our misery, a deadly Armageddon-sized meteor in December.

Memes aside, we’re being bombarded by very real, very terrifying images day by day, hour by hour.

Images of police and rioters clashing in dozens of cities across USA and abroad. Images of our own youth, Collins Khosa and others, being assaulted by South African security forces.

Every single one of our actions project images that sear into the subconscious of those around us.

In amongst all this chaos, it’s easy to forget that there’s a global pandemic going on, the most destructive plague in 100 years. There are over 100,000 people being infected every day.

Predictably, we will soon be awash with more images of hospitals being overrun.

Today, on South Africa’s National Youth Day, there are thousands of people actively engaging in ongoing protests against discrimination. Most recently, pupils from our venerable schools have made their voices heard. Behind closed doors, we are being told of unseen images depicting gender-based violence - the spike of which has been a depressing consequence of lockdown.

It is difficult to fully retain perspective in the face of such imagery.

It is difficult to be calm and rational while watching the video of George Floyd’s life slowly being extinguished under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin - an image that will burn in our consciousness for decades to come.

In South Africa today, another image comes to mind. It is an image from five decades ago - that of 13-year-old Hector Pieterson being carried away after being shot by police on this exact day in 1976.

The grainy black and white photograph taken by veteran photographer Sam Nzima was amplified on the cover of every major international newspaper and brought the insane spectre of Apartheid’s brutality under a global spotlight. It proved a powerful domino in its eventual undoing.

Nzima himself endured ongoing abuse after its publication. “For many years I regretted taking that picture,” said Nzima in an interview with Time. “But I no longer regret it. When Madiba was unveiling the Hector Pieterson Memorial many years later, he said ‘when we saw that picture that was the day we said enough is enough.’”

We have achieved much since 1976.

However, it’s deeply worrying that the youth of today are still protesting for eerily similar causes.

Over the past week, bystanders have chimed in aggressively on the validity of the protestors’ emotions, the hashtags being used, the balance of the messaging and the wording of claims from marginalized groups.

I’m afraid these arguments miss the point. This approach dismisses the visceral horror evoked by images such as those of Floyd and Pieterson.

This is not a time to argue about semantics and terminology.

This is not a time to bypass the very real feelings that are being elicited across the globe.

This is a time to open up to the truth, as hard as it may be to hear.

Our world is broken. Our systems need updating.

This is a time to listen. To empathise. To take stock. To move forward, consciously.

It is a time to understand that every single one of our actions project images that sear into the subconscious of those around us.

On a day when the world is burning, this is a time for clarity and humility.

This is a time to create better images.

Peace.