Give peace a chance, Soweto
Peter Magubane
Peter Magubane
Artwork
1976
Artist
Peter Magubane
Title
Give peace a chance, Soweto
Date
1976
Materials
Photographic print
Dimensions
29.5 x 44 cm
Edition
Edition of 10
Credit
Courtesy of Goodman Gallery
Magubane was influential in persuading youth in Soweto to allow journalists to cover the 1976 protests and the weeks of violence that followed, telling schoolchildren, “A struggle without documentation is no struggle”. Give Peace a Chance is one such document.
Peter Magubane is recognised for his fearlessness in documenting apartheid’s subjugation of black South Africans. He was arrested on numerous occasions and sentenced to nearly 600 days in solitary confinement. In Magubane’s words: “I did not want to leave the country to find another life. I was going to stay and fight with my camera as my gun. I did not want to kill anyone, though. I wanted to kill apartheid.”