RIP Peter Magubane: The lensman who fought evil

Hailed by the New York Times for fighting apartheid with his camera, tributes continued to pour for internationally acclaimed photojournalist Peter Magubane, who died in his sleep on Monday. He was 91.

The SA National Editors’ Forum described him as “a giant in the field of photojournalism, who will forever be remembered as one of the courageous journalists who defiantly opposed the apartheid regime in South Africa”.

Magubane covered the SA story and the anti-apartheid turmoil

Magubane, who covered the SA story and the anti-apartheid turmoil from the 1950s to democracy in the 1990s, has been praised by New York Times writer Alan Cowell and former CBS News’ cameraman Siphiwo Ralo for documenting “the cruelties of white South African rule”.

Cowell, who was based in the strife-torn SA in the 1980s, said the award-winning Magubane was made to pay for his role in journalism, having endured police beatings and 586 consecutive days in solitary confinement.

Magubane’s documentation of SA’s history, included:

• A photograph of a little girl wearing a dress and a cardigan, looking directly at the camera with her mouth agape, while a woman is seen sitting behind her – having her hands placed on the back of the girl’s neck.
• A photograph captured in 1956, showing a black maid in a beret and apron – tending a young white girl on a bench marked with the words “Europeans Only”.
• The Sharpeville massacre on 21 March, 1960 at the township’s police station during an anti-pass demonstration.
• The 1976 Soweto student uprising.

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“Mr Magubane liked to say that he took to hiding his camera in hollowed-out bread loaves, empty milk cartons or even the Bible – enabling him to shoot pictures clandestinely,” said Cowell.

Magubane preferred not to leave the country

Despite the hardship and state repression, Magubane preferred not to leave the country.

“He was often lionised among a generation of black photographers, whose skin colour gave them access to the segregated townships but stirred visceral reactions among white police officers,” said Cowell.

“These photographers included Alf Khumalo and Sam Nzima, whose picture of Hector Pieterson, a fallen student in the 1976 Soweto riots, became one of the most potent images of the revolt and of the racial conflict that fuelled it.

“Much of the impetus for the advance of black photography, came from Drum (magazine), which chronicled apartheid abuses – and its German-born chief photographer Jürgen Schadeberg.

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“Mr Magubane was so eager to join the magazine that he took a job as a driver and messenger in 1954 before talking his way into the photography department.

“His interest in photography began when his father presented him with a Kodak Box Brownie, although, by his own account, he completed his first professional assignment – photographing a conference of the ANC in 1955 – with a Japanese-made Yashica camera, also paid for by his father.”

Magubane was a great storyteller of the human condition

Ralo said Magubane was a great storyteller of the human condition in apartheid-era SA.

“To silence him, the white, minority regime detained him under the severe Section 6 of the Terrorism Act and banned him – confining him to his home in Soweto.

“His uncompromising images of squalor and brutal conditions infuriated the regime. Bra Peter was my dear friend, father figure and my University of Life.

“I took up photography because of him – my hero. We should not weep after his passing, but celebrate and cherish his contribution to our emancipation.”

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