SCENES FROM A GENOCIDE 1652-2012


  • Photographer
    ROELOF PETRUS VAN WYK
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    PRIVATE
  • Date of Photograph
    2010-2012
  • Technical Info
    DIGITAL, CANON 5D, 35MM LEICA.
Story

Scenes from a Genocide, 1652-2012

Background
South Africa has experienced 8 so-called epochs of conflict; Pre-colonial Wars, Genocide, Slavery, Wars of Resistance, Anglo-Boer (known as the South African) Wars, the 1st and 2nd World War and the Struggle for Liberation.
This Deeper Perspective Project Entry focuses on the Genocide of the Khoi-San people, being the only true people who can claim ownership of the country, these people have undergone severe abuse from all sides of the political realm.
Genocide is one of the worst forms of brutality known to humankind. It involves the systematic breakdown of a culture, language or religion to the point of subjugation.
Genocide is used to ‘rid’ a country of ‘undesirables’ – a more brutal form of racism that uses horrendous violence in the implementation of a faction’s beliefs.
The plight of the Khoi has been dismissed largely to their minority group.
When the European settlers arrived at the Cape in 1652, they came into contact with the Khoi community who is regarded as the first victims of racism in South Africa. The Khoi traditionally occupied most of the Eastern Cape and coastline of the Western Cape from which, in a form of genocide, have been chased into the wastelands of the Kalahari, the current home oft he Khoi.
The Khoi people have indeed provided us with the largest and oldest rock paintings in the world. This is why the Drakensberg Mountains like the Sterkfontein Caves have been recognized as a Heritage Site.
Overview of the Project
The project uses the photographic language of Reconnaisance photography as its starting point in order to trace the genocidal history of the Khoi-San in the South African Landscape. The landscape has history written into it, you only have to learn how to read it, and it will unfold across the vast breathtaking landscapes of South Africa. One can get some understanding oft he vastness oft he Genocidal horrors when confronted with the scale of the landscape in South Africa without having to resort to typical images of poverty, disease and death.
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1. TITLE:
Hui !Gaep, Place where the clouds meet (San) or Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope (Dutch) Diptych, Inkjet print, Colour, Edition 1/3, 2010
Starting in the city of Cape Town, a beautiful city which still lives in the aftermath of Apartheid and ist dividing structures, built on a horrific foundation of colonial discrimination and slavery, the original home of the Khoi-San.

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2. TITLE:
Wemmershoek Dam, Franschoek
Triptych, Inkjet print, Colour, Edition 1/3, 2012

3. TITLE:
Hottentots-Holland Mountains, Franschoek,
Triptych, Inkjet print, Colour, Edition 1/3, 2012
The journey continues to the Franschoek area, where today a thriving wine industry is nestled between the frontier mountains (Hottentots-Holland Mountains, the name even contains the uneasy relationship of ist origin) of the first colonial nomadic farmers. The descendants of both the colonisers and the slaves, maintain a tenuous relationship between the landowners (white) and labourers (mixed race San, Khoi, Malay, Slave descendants), reinforcing an ongoing system of discrimination which started when the indigenous Khoi-San were hunted, killed or forced into slavery. Approximately 85% of property is still owned by whites who also holds nearly all economic power.

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4. TITLE:
Magersfontein, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Diptych, Inkjet print, Colour, Edition 1/3, 2012

5. TITLE:
Towards the Kalahari, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Diptych, Inkjet print, Colour, Edition 1/3, 2012
This entry ends with two images from the Northern Cape Province, a semi-arid desert to which the Khoi-San have been relegated. This province is one of the poorest in South Africa, in spite of extremely rich diamond mining (De Beers), and farming. However, the area is host to some of the best examples of Khoi-San rock paintings and also to the last remaining San people in the town of Andriesvale.




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