MASIBUMBANE A PROJECT BY THE DURBAN CENTRE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY Masibumbane Masibumbane A project by the Durban Centre for Photography Arts & Culture Arts and Culture 3 Durban Centre for Photography Bat Centre 45 Maritime Place, Victoria Embankment Durban 4001 First published May 2016 © DCS 2016 ISBN 978-1-928341-21-5 Published by Real African Publishers on behalf of the Durban Centre for Photography PO Box 3317 Houghton Johannesburg 2041 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of both the copyright holder and the publisher of the book. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. 4 Dedicated to the community of Chesterville for sharing their stories 5 As we have reached this milestone, we must appreciate that cultural self- determination occurs when people use their imagination to create positive images that portray their true selves. Over the past 3 centuries the African’s entire way of looking at the world was determined by colonialists. We have to develop new ways of looking at – and seeing – ourselves. This we will do when we all tell our stories, to say our heritage should belong to us all. — Nathi Mtehthwa. Minister of Arts and Culture, September 2014 7 FOREWORD Recount, Recall and Response the dialogue, the content gnawing at the constraints of the frame to get up close for an encounter with the image, engaging The Ancestors are always with us. — Malian Bambara saying. vigorously for multiple truths. Perceptions of reality shaped by content, the elements in the Their reach into the present, alongside the photograph’s tenuous frame speaking to each other, plotting illusive meaning, relationship with reality, assumes an onerous responsibility in nourishing readings, informing retrospectives, liberating other the present as the image offers insights into history. The histories and inducing synergies with the present adding vital multiplicity of histories has been subsumed by a dominant components to shifting identities, the voices of history affirming struggle narrative at the expense of parallel narratives that their heft. nurture and contextualise history; that are the sub-text of The images complicate and defy known narratives of struggle experience, the dignity of existence and strategies of personal betrayal and violence. They unsettle accepted historical evidence survival. These reach into the present, informing and asking: and process adding lost facets of the past for scrutiny and sustenance for the shifting sands of hope and expectation and insertion into the here and now. These still moments as the consolidation of identities and nation. departures from the amorphous mass, oppressed and The diversity of lives lived under oppression were sustained downtrodden, to reveal the individual, the personal, bringing by reclamations of humanity denied in the white man’s world: the ability to claim the frame’s space, their humanity and moments of sustenance to troubled spirits, the chance to control personal nuance. self-image for the fleeting moment that the camera brings and The subjects making visible, made visible, resuscitating, then takes away. The illusion of escape that maybe, just for this reinstating, reclaiming, confronting the viewer with a gaze that one moment, I can offer this window into my life to create a indicts the present for ‘dreams deferred’ and asking if they were conversation with contemporary existence. in vain. These conversations between image and word, interrogating each other for validity, memory’s many narratives, enlightening Peter McKenzie – DCP Project Director 8 PREFACE The loss of history is a loss of identity. The Chesterville the past, the purpose of the book is to get people to reflect on community has been privileged to share their stories of where their journey as human beings travelling through life. the township comes from and where they are today. Indigenous There were a lot of challenges writing the book, such as how stories are important, and stories of the fallen heroes are worth to capture the moment and put it into words while reading the telling: getting them straight from the horse’s mouth and face of an interviewee. As a writer, one wants to capture all the preserving them for future generations. African history has long emotions presented and feed them back into the book. Some not been documented. Now it is time to start, through emotions might have been lost in between words, but the stories photographs, chronologically dating and making sense of past being told are real and eye opening. All the stories in this book events and celebrating good memories; remembering fallen touched me and humbled me in many ways: the love and heroes and writing about their contribution to who and what commitment individuals have for their families, communities we are today; keeping accurate records as word-of-mouth and the country. distorts the story. This book is a healing journey that has allowed people to tell Nomvula Sikakane – Project coordinator their stories, share their experiences, and somehow engage with what has been long forgotten or kept inside. It is a therapeutic journey of various individuals telling their stories of the past to heal, and to revive the memories of where they come from as a community, and what they went through to arrive at the present. We interviewed more than 50 individuals from Chesterville for the book, getting their sense of what photographs mean to them, where they were during the time they were taken, and how they feel about the past and their life today. Using pictures of 9 10 CONTRIBUTORS Gift Nyamapfene Khethukuthula Lembethe Mphumeleli Ngidi Nomvula Sikakane Talent Buthelezi Takudzwa Makoni Zimasa Magudu Sam Mukanya Paulo Menezes Mabusi Cebekhulu Silungile Dladla Euphemia Nomasonto Bhengu Peter Mckenzie 11 12 A Silent Lullaby By Gift Nyamapfene 13 he photograph is of a young woman holding a young baby Mbotho had an empty gaze on her face when the photograph on her lap while sitting on a wooden stool, isiqhiki: a chair was made because she was disappointed with herself for falling Tthat one cannot lean one’s back on. It is an old black-and- pregnant at the age of 20. She had just begun her 30-year white ‘colour’ photograph. The woman is looking away from the teaching career at Chesterville High School. She carried with lens of the camera and is emotionally detached from the baby herself the responsibility of a new child and the burden of a or is camera shy. She looks vulnerable. It was sunny when the disappointed family who had strong social reservations about a photograph was made. young woman having an out-of-wedlock child. The young woman is wearing a white sleeveless blouse, a long Had she turned 21 without a child, Mbotho would have had black dress, and has hand-done cornrows on her head made the whole family celebrate her for her exemplary youth through from her natural hair. umemulo, a traditional Zulu 21st birthday. The local Ethiopian The woman in the photograph is Thandiwe Mbotho holding church, at which her family worshipped, excommunicated her her firstborn son, Celokuhle Nkwanyana, whom she had given for half a year and she was dispirited by this public birth to in the summer of 1968. Her son was two months old embarrassment. That all spoke to the gender inequality, sexism when the photograph was made and this was their first and cultural norms that marginalised women in the photograph together. community. Sipho Dlomo, a well-known local photographer, made the Mbotho’s maternity life was unbearable. The law did not allow photograph in Chesterville at Mbotho’s home in Road 7. her to get pregnant on the job and she had to hide her pregnancy She had to wear free, simple clothing because the scorching for nine months from the Chesterville High School council. The sun of the summer was unbearable. Her natural hair was tightly principal knew Mbotho was pregnant and he helped with the plaited according to cultural convention, which believes that a cover-up. Her over-sized blazer played an equal role in hiding young mother should not touch her hair. If she touched her hair, the pregnancy from school associates. elders believed that strands would fall out dramatically until she She did not have maternal check-ups with a doctor or nurse was bald. When she was pregnant she was not allowed to walk because she was afraid of losing her job. Maternal leave was out outside the house at night because evildoers were believed to be of the question. One Thursday in the summer of 1968, Mbotho at work in the dark and would harm the unborn child. took time off from work under the disguise of a four-day illness 14 and went into labour. Dr Foster at McCord hospital in Durban Mbotho says that, for her, this photograph provides a huge delivered the baby, and a Dr V. Gcabashe faked a medical letter sense of history and represents the indelible moments of supporting Mbotho’s sick leave claim. hardship that she experienced as a young woman in Chesterville. Mbotho did not breastfeed her son and was absent from all of the natural mother-child bonding process. Her mother and grandmother looked after Cebokuhle.