Picture ripped off apartheid’s mask
TODAY marks a sad end of a chapter of the great life of a man whose work made us believe in the possibility of our freedom.
We are at a loss for words with the passing on of this great and yet so humble son of the soil.
And who cannot feel lost, lonely and shattered when he loses not only a father and a brother but also a friend in one person.
Who wouldn’t struggle to stop the tears from dropping that force their way from the depth of your being when you hear that a special part of you has left you forever.
And today, because I am in the presence of the still body of my father, my brother, and my friend, I will ask Peter Magubane and beckon the spirit of Alf Khumalo and Juda Ngwenya to lead us again – to lead us – we great people of Mpumalanga in another shutter salute as we return the mortal remains of this good soul to our ancestors.
Let me extend a special word of gratitude to His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa for declaring the funeral of this son of the soil, a Special Provincial Official Funeral.
On behalf of The Presidency, we express our deepest condolences for the loss of Masana Sam Nzima, a giant photographer who through the lenses of his camera, told the story of our Struggle for liberation.
Indeed the people of Bushbuckridge and entire South Africa are mourning the passing of uBab’Sam Nzima.
The news of his passing brought sadness and sorrow not only to the people of South Africa but to the entire world that came to know uBab’Nzima through his photojournalism work.
At the height of repressive laws and political violence meted out by the apartheid regime on the black majority of our country, the myth and facade of a normal state was instantly broken.
That facade had for years been sold to the international community, and was shattered through an incident frozen in eternity by a camera of the photojournalist whose mortal remains lie in front of us today.
On June 16, 1976, the extent of inhumanness and brutality of apartheid was laid bare, with the photo that immortalised an 18-year-old Mbuyisa Makhubu carrying the lifeless body of a young Hector Pieterson.
To this day, that iconic photo remains a reminder of our history. It became the emotive and historical landmark feature that forever defined how the June 16, 1976 narrative was told.
Because of this captivating but also horrifying picture taken by uBab’Nzima, the whole world took notice of the brutal killings of innocent people in South Africa.
Just as the senseless killing of peaceful marchers against pass laws in Sharpeville, the 1976 generation also took resistance struggle to a higher level and brought required momentum to the armed struggle and international campaign.
The two historical incidents are captured in powerful images thus highlighting the role and power of photojournalism in our struggle for freedom.
From that fateful day, the nature and character of peoples’ resistance to apartheid changed forever.
It was a defining moment in our history that sparked an international outcry and mobilised young people into swelling the ranks of the national liberation movement in exile.
Even those who had stood on the side of the regime as its allies, began to acknowledge that indeed the philosophical basis of apartheid was wrong, evil and a crime against humanity.
It hardened the international opinion against South Africa’s apartheid regime, which later led to sanctions being imposed.
For uBab’Nzima and other journalists, it meant harassment from the regime.
For its part, the fascist apartheid regime responded by banning and putting him under house arrest thus denying his freedom of association.
That frozen moment captured by Nzima changed the course of history and, in no time, the nature and character of our Struggle against apartheid and all its heinous crimes was changed and became more militant thus pushing the regime into a corner.
As Vladimir Lenin had correctly observed,
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
And June 16, 1976 was such a day where something so significant to define the history of this country happened.
The image associated with that moment, is the one captured by Sam Nzima.
The student uprising of 1976 was not just about the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.
It was about the whole system that was pushing the black majority to the margins of civilisation; b asically, into an abyss of history through denial of equal opportunities to education and all opportunities that flow from it.
It was also to transform the provision of education as an instrument of change, and one that opens doors for all children irrespective of where they were born or into which families they were born.
Like the lives of many of us who were born in small villages or as farm dwellers, Nzima was born in Bushbuckridge and grew up on the farm where his father worked.
He had dreams and aspirations.
But by being born on a farm one was expected to provide manual labour for the benefit of the owner.
Many of our black compatriots never got to realise their dreams, because those dreams died an undignified death in the agricultural fields through forced manual labour.
Nzima went through the same life experience.
However, his dream to further his education motivated him to run away from that life and seek better opportunities in Johannesburg.
That is where he continued his education through various correspondence colleges and he did some odd jobs in order to survive.
He later joined The World newspaper in 1968 on a fulltime basis as a photojournalist.
Photography remained his passion and he concentrated more in this area of work that would make us know him.
Many of the pictures taken by Nzima were not published for us to see and read the message he was communicating through his art.
However, we are content that the one that got to be published at the height of our Struggle, was so significant to tell a story more than words could describe.
We celebrate the fact that among awards Nzima won, our country honoured him with the prestigious Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze.
The same photograph was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential images of all time.
This picture which remains embedded in our minds and the minds of the whole world, is his legacy that will remain forever.
uBab’Nzima’s involvement with the government of Mpumalanga dates way back before democratic dispensation and continued for some time. In 1995 he was appointed as a member of the first Mpumalanga Tender Board.
Together with a number of prominent people of this province, he played a critical role in the establishment of effective governance and oversight structures during the early days of this democratic dispensation.
He was therefore part of the institutional structures that led to the implementation of various capital projects including schools, clinics, roads and above all the Riverside government complex.
He was more than just a photojournalist. His contribution to the development of this province is monumental.
In his tribute to Nzima, Professor Somadoda Fikeni put it so powerfully when he said: “The photographers are the invisible lot but whose presence are felt in every story.
Nzima’s picture of Peterson spoke a million words, which no editor or writer could write so articulately.”
Bab’Nzima belonged to a generation of fearless photojournalists who used the might of their lenses to expose the brutality of the nationalist party regime.
It is men like him who indeed come once in a lifetime to accelerate history.
And so, when our liberation history is told, when the story of June 16 and the Umkhonto we Sizwe June 16 Detachment is finally written, we should find there a great son of this community with his camera keen to write with his eye our journey to freedom.
May the soul of this giant rest in eternal peace.