Nzima made a difference
WHEN Sam Nzima was growing up in his village of Lillydale in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, he dreamt big and wanted to make a difference. At that time he held a parttime job at the Kruger National Park and, with his modest earnings, bought a camera, taking pictures of his schoolmates for 10c a shot.
When Sam and his fellow villagers were compelled to harvest fruit for a white local farmer, for a pittance, he packed his bags and headed for Johannesburg to try his luck in photography.
One of his photographs, of a pupil, Hector Pieterson, fatally wounded by apartheid firepower unleashed on peaceful, unarmed demonstrators from high schools in Soweto objecting to the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, would become emblematic of the Struggle. Nzima died on Saturday, having retired in Lillydale.
The picture earned him a spot in Time magazine’s 100 most influential photographs ever taken. In terms of international recognition, it puts Nzima’s image in the same league as Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph of that passionate swoop by the sailor on the nurse in Times Square in 1945; Jeff Widener’s June 1989 haunting picture of a lone protester facing tanks on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square; Nick Ut‘s image of naked 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc who had just been caught in a napalm bombing by the South Vietnamese air force outside Trang Bang, South Vietman; and Richard Drew’s image of a man plunging from the World Trade Center in the moments after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Nzima was courageous and gallant. He epitomised the mission and determination of black reporters and photographers who, against all odds, brought the atrocities of June 16, 1976 to the world.
While white South Africa was cushioned to the reality of what was going on in the townships, black newspaper crews such as Nzima’s risked their lives – from the protesters and policemen – to expose the truth.
Due to a large extent to his picture, thousands of young people skipped the country for training to fight against apartheid.
With a single shot, Nzima captured the full brutality of apartheid in 1976.
May he rest in peace.