Black South African photojournalist Peter Magubane, who spent decades documenting the violence of the racist apartheid regime, including the 1976 Soweto student uprising, died on Monday at the age of 91, his family said.
Published on: 01/01/2024 – 6:49 p.m
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When anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was released in 1990, Peter Magubane became his official photographer until he was elected the first black president four years later with the advent of democracy in the country.
“He died peacefully today surrounded by his family,” said the South African press representative, SANEF.
We will be Dr. Peter Magubane's indomitable spirit, courage and extraordinary contributions to journalism will be sorely missed. SANEF extends its deepest condolences to his family, friends and the entire media community at this time of profound loss. https://t.co/bz0dy1ze31
— SANEF (@SAEditorsForum) January 1, 2024
He is a “conscientious photographer who works hard,” commented his daughter Fikile on the public broadcaster SABC. “He was passionate, his job was his top priority.”
“South Africa has lost an outstanding freedom fighter, storyteller and photographer,” Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa tweeted. “Peter Magubane fearlessly documented the injustices of apartheid.”
One of his most famous photos, taken in 1956, shows a little white girl on a bench marked “Europeans Only” and her black nanny on the other side of the bench in a suburb of Johannesburg.
Peter Magubane, the legendary South African photographer, has died aged 91. His photographs from the apartheid era, particularly during the riots in Soweto, are an important part of the country's history. His favorite photo: a girl and her maid on a European-only bench https://t.co/1oHargM2Pd
— World Editors Forum (@WorldEditors) January 1, 2024
After starting out as a driver for the trendy magazine Drum, dedicated to black urban culture, he moved to the photo lab before getting behind the lens. He documented daily life and several key moments in the fight against apartheid.
He was arrested in 1969 while photographing protesters outside a prison where activist Winnie Mandela was being held. He spent 586 days in solitary confinement in prison and upon his release was ordered to stop all photographic activities for five years. In 1971 he was arrested again for disobeying this order and imprisoned for many months.
Harassed by the police, whom he eliminated as much as possible, he covered the student uprising in Soweto in 1976 extensively, for which he took some of the most striking photographs that made him known throughout the world.
Peter Magubane has published around fifteen books, some of which were censored during apartheid, the racial regime that ruled South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s.
(With AFP)
Also read: On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison